


You and I

by Allyssa



Category: Swimming RPF
Genre: F/M, M/M, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-23
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2017-11-19 08:16:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 22,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/571125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allyssa/pseuds/Allyssa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan is tired of the rumors about his one-night stands. So he sets an action plan...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. There you have it, ready or not

**Author's Note:**

> Kind of inspired by Lady Gaga's song "You and I"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title form Bridgit Mendler's song Ready or Not

Kayla isn’t even capable of putting a finger to her life timeline to the point when she and Ryan became… something. One day he was just a pro-swimmer in the lane five at the UF pool at 6 in the morning, living a life that was far away from hers and then… he was just there. Kayla doesn’t even know how that happened. But Kayla doesn’t ask questions, nor does she complain.  
It’s been a pretty decently working friendship since – from time to time she stops by at his house to remind him that if he doesn’t fill his fridge with some normal food, he might die of hunger sometime between playing Halo and training, which always ends in Ryan commenting at the number of great restaurants he can eat in if he wants to and in Kayla cooking some meal or ordering pizza that they share during playing that stupid video game against each other. In return, Kayla is more than thankful for Ryan’s company while hitting the clubs in the city. Ryan’s saved her from many troubles by stepping between her and drunk guys, saying “I think it would be better if you just left her alone, bro.” – the one sentence he somehow manages to say firmly enough at any stage of drunkenness he finds himself in. It’s been more than helpful sometimes. Gainesville is a wild town, especially when it comes to clubbing. Kayla had sworn to herself she would stay at home every night if it wasn’t for Ryan to back her up.  
In Kayla’s eyes Ryan is a great friend to stick around. And her go-to-guy to complain about school, always more than willing to make up a great adventure plan to offer a distraction from learning process for her.  
However, when Kayla’s phone rings on her desk, she just wishes Ryan’s wouldn’t be distracting right now… For a fraction of second, she considers not picking up, but then she just gives up the idea and picks it up anyway. Because if she doesn’t do so now, he will be attacking her until she does, that she knows for sure.  
She sighs. “’Sup?”  
“The new bar down the University Avenue in an hour,” Ryan states.  
Kayla flips a page of her textbook, scanning the chapter with her eyes. How in the hell is she supposed to remember all that stuff?  
“I can’t,” Kayla says without even lifting her eyes from the textbook. She’s read that page twice already, yet she doesn’t remember it. Ugh! She highlights the first sentence of a paragraph.  
“Why?”  
“I’m learning,” she basically growls wondering how much it would make Ryan upset if she just hung up on him.  
Ryan laughs at the other end. “C’mon, you’re learning like the whole year. I’m sure that if you just let it go for a day, nothing’s gonna happ-“  
“It’s midterm, Ryan. We’re facing more tests than you can even imagine right now,” she groans in exasperation.  
“Yeah, school… Right…” he says like he almost forgot Kayla’s still got her university duty to fulfill. “What’s your major?”  
Kayla drops the pen she was holding and gives the wall in front of her a look. “Are you fucking kidding me, Ryan?” she asks unbelieving. “It’s like the fourth time you’ve asked me this month. It’s human performance,” she groans. “Dude, write it down and put a freaking sticky note to your fridge!”  
Well sometimes Kayla just wonders why she is even talking to him.  
“Relax, Kay,” he says and she can almost see the grin on his face. She grinds her teeth slightly and goes back to the textbook. “What are you learning?”  
“Well, I would be learning about muscles and stuff, if it wasn’t for you interrupting.”  
“Whoa, Kayla, chill out, girl. The school is getting on you. Give yourself a break and come over at least,” he suggests.  
“I can’t,” she says. “School.”  
“I can help you with learning, alright?”  
Kayla laughs. “No you can’t, Ryan.”  
“Hey,” he says kind of insulted. “Remember that I have a degree and you don’t? So technically I’m the smarter one of us,” he says giggling. He pauses. “C’mon, you can’t leave me alone the last Saturday night before I leave for Orlando.”  
“Don’t you like have other friends to hang out with?”  
“Oh jeah!” Ryan smirks. “But none of them actually needs to save from school, so…”  
Kayla lays her forehead on the book closing her eyes to think.  
She’s going over the chapters the third time right now and it seems to her that more she reads, less she knows. Plus, she doesn’t even want to read that anymore. Maybe Ryan is right about giving herself a break. Well, who needs to know muscles anyway? Actually she does for the exam, but that’s not the answer she’s looking for.  
“Fine,” she breathes out into the phone. “Be there in twenty.”  
“Cool,” Ryan says satisfied. “Don’t forget to order pizza!”  
Kayla smirks.  
She pulls into his driveway, parking the car so close to his that her front plate was slightly touching the bumper. She does that to piss Ryan off. And even though she doesn’t think he will notice this tonight, it gives her a great, very rebelish, feeling.  
The pizza delivery guy is already standing at the door about to ring the bell, but the sound of the car coming stopped him from doing it.  
“Hey,” Kayla says to him as she grabs her bag from the passenger seat and locks the car behind her. She stomps up the three steps to the door and pushes past him without giving him a single look. The guy looks at her confused.  
Kayla opens the door and makes her way to the couch. Ryan is nowhere to be seen. That’s nothing that can bother Kayla.  
“Ryan, the pizza is here, pull out your cash money!” she shouts upstairs as she flips herself on the leather. She hears paws scratching on the wood as Carter slides his way around the corner to jump into her lap. “Hey, puppy,” she says with a smile which is immediately exchanged for a painful hiss as the ninety-pound dog digs his legs into her stomach.  
Kayla hears rumbling upstairs.  
“Why don’t you pay for the pizza yourself for once?” Ryan asks.  
“Because! It wouldn’t be fair. I order, you pay – that’s the fair trade we have, remember?”  
“I don’t see anything fair about that…” Ryan grumbles jokingly as he goes down the stairs and he makes sure that Kayla sees the frown he dedicates to her. She does, but it doesn’t seem to worry her at least. She just scratches Carter who finally settled in her lap, body leaning against her chest, behind his ear. Carter licks her face making her giggle.  
Ryan pulls up a 20 dollar bill and hands it to the delivery guy still awkwardly standing in the open door.  
“Thanks, man,” he says and without waiting for him to give him his change back, he takes the pizza and kicks the door shut.  
He lifts the lid and peeks in the box. His face splits into a wide smile. “Kayla, you know me so good,” he says satisfied seeing the pepperoni topping and sits down next to her. Kayla shoots him a wink.  
As soon as the smell hits Carter’s nose, he jumps back to his feet, causing Kayla’s abs to flex against the weight, and crawls over to Ryan, nudging his nose into the box. Kayla can’t quite blame him for leaving her – to the dog she was no competition with Ryan and a freshly baked pizza being the other option. She slides down the couch propping her legs up on the coffee table and exhales.  
“What’s up?” Ryan asks taking a bite of his slice and to Carter’s great disappointment pushes the box towards Kayla.  
“School,” she says and takes a slice. “I hate midterm. And finals. But midterm is definitely worse,” she states without a good reason on her mind why midterms are way worse than final exams. They just are.  
Ryan nods chewing. “Sucks…”  
Yeah, it definitely sucks.  
“Hey, but you know what would make my day better right now?” Kayla asks with a bright smile. That smile that she always pulls out on him when she wants something. “Can we play your new Nissan Altima commercial?”  
Ryan snorts. “Not gonna happen.”  
“Oh, c’mon, Lochte. I want to see that most innovative backstroke ever,” she pauses waving her hand. “Actually scratch that, I don’t wanna see the backstroke. I wanna see the most innovative Lochte ever.”  
He laughs. “You’re looking at him,” he runs a hand from his head down to his waist. “The one and only. Tonight’s exclusive, for your viewing pleasure.”  
Kayla rolls her eyes. “But you don’t look that dumb in real life as you do in the commercials,” she teases with a smile. “Can we play it?”  
“No,” he says with a full mouth.  
“Ryan…”  
“No.”  
It’s a game of teasing that they play and Kayla means to win this. They will watch it, she decides.  
Kayla shifts to kneel on the couch next to him. “Please,” she bats her eyelashes theatrically. “For some reason, you knocking that cone down and looking all dumb makes me feel so much better!” She laughs softly.  
Ryan looks at her and raises his eyebrow. “Wow, thank you. Glad to hear that,” he says sarcastically and takes a bite and looks right into her eyes chewing greatly. “But no,” he repeats. Ryan Lochte does lose easily, and he doesn’t mean to lose this round either.  
Kayla moves closer to him placing a hand on his thigh meaningfully. “Please. You acting all stupid is the only thing that can save me from this great depression I’m in right now. Ry…”  
He takes another slice of pizza from the box feeding Carter one of the pepperonis. “An Oscar-worthy act you just performed, but still no.”  
Kayla sits back on her heels and pouts giving him her puppy eyes. Both of them know that’s the one thing that Ryan can’t resist easily. He fights it though. But the way Kayla stares at him, like he just killed a cute little duckling, is just too much.  
“Fine,” he exhales.  
Kayla’s face goes bright with victory. “So we can watch it?”  
“No, no fucking commercials,” he says. Agreeing to that would equal losing. And Ryan isn’t losing; it’s more of a tie that he’s looking for. “But you can google my name if that really makes you happy,” he offers with a smirk.  
She looks at him suspiciously. She raises and eyebrow. “Is that you offering a tie, Lochte?” That doesn’t sound like him. Not that Kayla would care much, because Ryan backing away, even a little bit, means she wins, no matter how Ryan calls it.  
He shrugs smiling, tilting his head. “Well, maybe… It’s a ten second offer. Take it or leave it.”  
Kayla pauses just for the dramatic effect. “Fine, gimme your iPhone,” she says because she’s to lazy to actually get up and go get hers from the bag. Ryan lifts his hips from the couch and pull his phone from his back pocket. He gives it to her without a word.  
She types in Ryan Lochte quickly. “Lochte Wikipedia, Lochte on Twitter, official page,” she mumbles as she scrolls down looking for something juicy. “Images for Ryan Lochte,” she reads and glances at him quickly, he looks back with a raised eyebrow. “I’m gonna skip that,” she states, “you look quite good in some of the photos and that’s not what I need right now.”  
Ryan smirks. He knows the right reason she skips that photos. At least he thinks he knows. Because that blush she has on her cheeks every single time she sees him shirtless can’t be a coincidence. And God knows the majority of google images of him doesn’t include nothing more than a speedo.  
“Oh, here it is!” Carter shrinks back as Kayla almost screams happily. “Ryan Lochte is bad at interviews – that a total better-day-maker,” she smiles.  
“No way,” Ryan snaps the phone from her before she can click on it.  
“What?” Kayla looks at him half surprised, half angry. She reaches for it. “Give it back.”  
“I said you can google it, not click on the links,” he grins.  
“Fuck you, Lochte!” she jumps to his side of the couch giving Carter a minimal amount of time to run away from in between them. He crawls under the table. “That was not part of the deal,” Kayla says as she tries to reach the phone Ryan is holding in the other hand away from her, while hitting his shoulder with a palm. She considers balling it up in a fist for a better effect. “Give it back, you loser.”  
Ryan tries to shield himself as well as stop her from punching him with his free arm. “Say you won’t click it,” he says with a grin.  
“But then what’s the point in-“  
“Say you won’t click it.” He manages to get hold of her arms. Even he himself is surprised he did that. Kayla frowns at him, but she can’t hide that amused smile all the way. When she doesn’t answer, he looks at her quizzically.  
“OK…” she says all stubborn. “I’m sure I’ll find some embarrassing headlines, anyway.”  
“Whatever…” Ryan shrugs and passes her the phone. He’s sure she will. But she knows him for quite a long time now, she knows most of it isn’t true. Well, at least he hopes she does. Because if she doesn’t, well that would be really weird… He shakes that thought out of his head. “C’mon, buddy,” he pats his thigh as he gets up and Carter crawls from under the table and joins him. Ryan opens the door to the backyard and the dog skips the three steps with one giant jump.  
“Oh no, you weren’t!” He hears Kayla saying in theatrical horror. “Olympic performance: Ryan Lochte making out with four girls within 15 minutes,” she reads the headline and looks up at him. “Oh, you beast,” she teases amused.  
He just waves his hand while securing the door open so Carter could come back anytime he wants to. “Man, that’s old story. Like ’09 or something…” he says casually. “Now I can do much better,” he jokes wiggling his eyebrows and Kayla blushes, rolling her eyes. Because she knows he can, she sees him training from time to time. Probably much more than she feels comfortable with. She lets that though go and taps the screen to filter the results to more recent.  
Ryan flops back onto the couch, sprawling himself all over. He rests his head on a arm rest and pushes his feet between Kayla’s back on the couch. She bats him away without looking, scrolling down the google results, but she shifts to give his legs more space anyway. Ryan smiles and crosses his arms behind his head. He stares at the ceiling fan for a minute.  
“Oh, there it is,” Kayla’s face lights up. “Wow, Ry, there’s lots of gossip about you going on, about you, do you know that?” she says and she’s really surprised. She’s never googled his name before, that would be just weird. Seriously, who would google their friends? That’s just weird.  
“Yep,” he says and his lips pop at the end of the word.  
“Lochte hits it home with random blonde again,” she reads scrunching her nose.  
Ryan sits up immediately. “Gimme that,” he says snapping the phone from her hand and looks at the date. “No fucking way,” he exhales. “That’s weak, who wrote that?” He gives her the phone back. “I wasn’t hitting it home with anyone on Thursday…” he defends himself.  
“Dude, chill,” Kayla gives him a light smile. “I know you weren’t. I was at the club, too.” She turns back to the phone, hitting the next page of results as Ryan lies back on the couch, relaxing. He’s used to dealing with articles like that and most of the time, he’s cool with it. He’s chose the life of a fucking superstar after all. They can write whatever they want about him, for all that he cares. It’s more the making sluts of the girls he talks to at a club. Not all of them are his soul mates, but they surely don’t deserve being written about like that. Well, at least most of them…  
“Who is the mystery woman sitting in Lochte’s lap in the back a car?”  
Ryan smirks. He remembers this one.  
Kayla squints and moves the phone closer to her face. “Is that your sister?” she asks examining the small picture next to the headline.  
Ryan looks down at her. “You don’t recognize my sister?” he laughs.  
Kayla shoots him a look. “Well, it would be easier if you let me click on it and enlarge the photo…”  
“Pfff,” Ryan snorts, looking back at the ceiling. “Yeah, that’s my sister.”  
“And do you know that they say it’s another girl of yours here?”  
“According to them, I hook up with every girl within my reaching distance,” he says. “I’m used to it, I guess… It’s all fucking bullshit.”  
Kayla is looking at him for a moment, trying to spot something that would indicate it bothers him. Because it would bother her. Actually, scratch that. It would drive her nuts. But he seems cool with it. He closes his eyes. More than bothered, he seems tired. Kayla just shrugs to herself and looks back to the phone. As she does that, the page scrolls down by itself and a ‘one new item, want to refresh page?’ notification appears. She clicks it and blinks as she reads it.  
“Ryan?”  
“Hm?” he mumbles without opening his eyes.  
“Another one-night stand for Ryan Lochte?” She glances at him. No reaction. “It just popped up. It’s from yesterday, I guess…” In the small picture, she couldn’t see much, but it totally looks like the Heaven bar Ryan went to. Kayla feels kind of scared that there is someone out there who actually dedicates his time to chase Ryan down Gainesville and taking photos of him… And maybe eventually of her, too…  
The phone in her hands stars to vibrate, screen going black and name of Ryan’s agent appearing.  
“It’s Erika.”  
“Put it on speaker,” he says too tired to move and reach for it. Well, he probably should have known better…  
“Ryan Lochte, find yourself a decent girlfriend! Or at least manage to be spotted two nights in a row with the same girl. Cause this is starting to be exhausting. I’m doing what I can and you and your love-affairs don’t help me that much!”  
Ryan sits up immediately, snapping the phone out of Kayla’s hand, dismissing the speaker and gluing the phone to his ear. He looks at Kayla apologetically and gets up. He heads to the backyard, feeling kind of embarrassed that she heard that. He probably should have known Erika has set up a google alert on his name or something. And he should have known she will be giving him a hard time about it.  
Kayla doesn’t know what to think about it, so she just doesn’t think anything. She reaches for another slice of pizza and stretches on the leather couch. When Ryan doesn’t come back for a while, she actually persuades herself to stand up and find her school book. She slumps back on the couch and finds the page she was reading before leaving.  
She looks up when she hears steps behind her head.  
“Something to drink?” Ryan asks as he passes her on the way to kitchen.  
“Do you have something super unhealthy?”  
Kayla is hundred percent sure Ryan has something unhealthy in here. It’s Ryan. The question is if he wants to share with her. Because, well, it’s Ryan and you never know.  
Ryan looks over his shoulder grinning. “Sugar-unhealthy, or alcohol-unhealthy?”  
“Sugar!” she yells laughing.  
He smirks as he pulls out a Mountain Dew for her and a beer for himself.  
“Thanks,” she says to him, as he sits next to her a passes her the can.  
“What are you doing?” he asks pointing at the book in her hand and takes a sip of the beer.  
“Learning.”  
“Oh, school. Muscles, right?”  
He peaks into the book and nods to himself. He reaches for the hem of his shirt and pulls it up.  
“Wait!” Kayla says looking at him with wide eyes. Ryan stops in the middle of his movement. “What are you doing?” she asks, a million weird thoughts running in her mind.  
“I promised I would help, right?” he explains and pulls the shirt over his head and tosses it over the armrest. “That picture sucks,” he says pointing at the body figure in the textbook. “You need to learn that in real life.” He flexes his biceps. “You see? Much better than in the picture.”  
“No way,” Kayla exhales trying to keep her eyes of his naked torso. Mission impossible indeed. She feels herself getting red, like some reflex she pulls out every time she faces something like this. She hates that reflex from the bottom of her heart.  
“C’mon, Kayla,” Ryan smiles. “It’s a small friendly help. It will be useful. You’ll kick ass at the exam after this, trust me.”  
Kayla considers her options, but honestly, she isn’t much capable of forming coherent thought right now. “Fine,” she says. “But don’t let this be weird.”  
“This ain’t weird. So stop blushing, that’s what makes it kind of weird,” he says shifting on the couch and reaching for the textbook.  
“Fuck you,” she says punching his shoulder.  
“You wish.”  
Kayla freezes at the remark and squints at him. “That was weird.”  
“Maybe,” Ryan admits with a smile. “I might be sorry for saying that.”  
Kayla nods with a grin and stands up. She heads for the kitchen.  
“Where are you going?” Ryan asks confused.  
Kayla opens the fridge. “If you’re going to act as my body figure, I might need the beer after all.”  
Ryan snorts. 

Ryan sits at the couch with Kayla behind him. He looks at the picture.  
“Trapezius muscle,” he says.  
“From here,” Kayla puts her finger where shoulder and neck meet, “down here,” she slides it down to the middle of his back.  
“Good,” Ryan says. “Teres minor.”  
“Lift your arm,” she says and Ryan obeys. Kayla trails her fingers on his side looking for it. “Hey, couldn’t you, like… flex it?”  
Ryan throws her a look. “How? I can flex my abs, my arms, maybe even my legs, but like… how do I flex a muscle under my arm?”  
Kayla laughs. “Well, I don’t know, it’s your body.”  
He frowns at her. “You’re the one studying it, should you know?” he point out, a smile settling on his lips.  
Kayla rolls her eyes. “Ok, raise your arms all the way,” she says and watches as the muscles on Ryan shoulders flex.  
“I’m waiting for that teres minor,” Ryan says after a moment of Kayla doing nothing but staring. His eyes are pinned to the textbook studying the picture.  
Kayla moves closer to him, focusing hard. She places her fingers back on his side and runs it over the skin, pushing on it a bit to find it.  
“There it is,” she says with a satisfied grin on her face. She outlines a triangle shape muscle.  
“I think that is major,” Ryan grins over his shoulder. “I asked for minor.”  
“No, you didn’t,” she accuses him even if she realizes she is wrong.  
“I did!”  
She just shakes her head amused and places her fingers above the teres major. She searches the spot on his body for a while, frowning. Ryan stars to wriggle.  
“That tickles!” he giggles, moving away from Kayla.  
“Fuck you,” she laughs slapping his shoulder blade.  
“Ouch!” he whines theatrically.  
“Stay still, I’m trying to focus in here.”  
Ryan tries to hold back the giggles.  
Kayla runs her fingers over his back for almost a minute, sliding her hand up in the front and then up his arm, where she knows the ligaments are supposed to be. However, nothing, she can’t locate it which makes her quite upset.  
Ryan looks at her over his shoulder with a grin. “Hey, if you wanted to grope me, you could just say that right away,” Ryan teases jokingly.  
Kayla blushes a little. “I’m not groping you,” she defends herself.  
“Well,” he puts his arms down and cocks his head. “Your hands are sliding up my super body for a good minute. Looks like groping to me,” he smirks.  
“I was looking for that fucking muscle, you moron!” Kayla crosses her arms over her chest. “But you’re probably missing that one, anyway.”  
Ryan winks at her. “Still think you were groping me.”  
“You wish,” Kayla smirks.  
“Maybe,” Ryan jokes and Kayla throws a pillow at him. “Movie?” he offers.  
“I’m picking,” she says refusing to look at him, already thinking about revenge for this.  
“I’m gonna get us something to eat.” 

Ryan finishes his third beer still thinking, not paying attention to the movie. He’s never been into this think-about-what-sponsors-think-of-you thing. But lately, Erika’s been giving him hard time about it. According to her, some sponsors had mention that they are not such big fans of his free lifestyle. Well, it would be kind of shame if they would drop him because of this. On the other hand, Erika might also think that up just to scare him… That definitely sounds like her. But Ryan clearly remembers how Ralph Lauren himself has been frowning at him at that show when he noticed every other girl was touching his ass in that suit. And then how he’s told him in super discreet way that basically he’s old enough to settle down a bit and stop partying. So that got him thinking that maybe, just maybe, he should change something about this…  
“Kay?”  
“’Sup?” she says, her eyes not leaving the screen. She’s lazily scratching Carter behind his ears. The dog’s closed his eyes a long time ago and Kayla is pretty sure he’s sleeping.  
“I’ve been thinking,” Ryan states earning her attention. Because Kayla knows well enough, that when Ryan’s thinking about something, something less or more catastrophic is going down. “Maybe I’m kind of tired of that media shit and one-night stands rumors.”  
Kayla nods, cause, well who wouldn’t be.  
“So I was thinking about if maybe we should fight back.”  
“We?”  
“Yeah,” he tosses his feet up the table. “I thought that you could help with that.” He shrugges easily.  
Kayla frowns. “Help with what?”  
“Well, I wanted to ask if maybe you wanna be my girlfriend.”


	2. Baby, I got big plans

Kayla blinks. “You want me to be what?” her voice cracks.   
“My girlfriend,” he repeats slowly. “You would be my date to red carpet and shit, Erika would be happy and media would get of my ass.”  
“So you mean like pseudo-girlfr-” Kayla swallows the word. “Like not a real thing.”  
“Yeah, kind of like that.”  
She raises her eyebrow processing the information.  
“But I get if you like don’t want to. It was just an idea,” Ryan smiles at her casually and takes a sip of his beer.  
Carter shifts on the couch stretching his legs and yawning. Kayla looks down at him before glancing back at Ryan.  
“Do you think it would really help?”  
He shrugs. “I guess…” He pauses. “Well, Erika said that having a girlfriend would help.”  
“I thought I told you not to let tonight be weird…”  
Ryan grins at her wrinkling his nose. “Is this weird?”  
“Kind of,” she snorts a laugh.  
“Alright, let’s not talk about it then,” Ryan drops it.   
“No, it’s not that bad idea. It could work, I guess.” She pauses looking at Ryan with more confidence. “I mean we’re friends, right? We’re good at making fools of people. And it’s not like the paparazzi don’t deserve it.” Ryan smiles at her widely and there are sparkles in his eyes. “And I guess I could survive some red carpet appearances and enjoy my five minutes of glory.”  
“You got a point,” Ryan raises his can up in the air and clinks it with Kayla’s. “Revenge time’s coming.”  
Kayla laughs and relaxes on the couch. The tension’s suddenly gone far away from them.   
“Sounds like fun,” she winks.  
Ryan nods. That’s what he likes about her – always up for some action.   
“Definitely fun, sweetheart,” he teases.  
Kayla squints at him, wild smile on her face. She’s not the one who won’t play this game this time. She shifts and crawls towards him seductively.   
“So, am I allowed to grope you with impunity, now, babe?” she winks at him and slides her hand from his knee up to his hip.   
“Well, let’s not do something stupid while we’re drunk. I don’t want to mess our newly established relationship.”  
“You’re Ryan fucking Lochte, you can’t mess a relationship,” she says. “So?” she hooks her finger behind the hem of his basketball shorts and pulls at it slightly before letting go.  
Ryan looks down at her hand, then back at her. He shrugs, suddenly feeling lightheaded.   
“I guess we could seal the deal with a kiss,” he offers.   
“Yeah,” Kayla shrugs. “I guess we could.”   
She leans down to him and Ryan licks his lips quickly before they kiss softly. He sucks on her lower lip gently before letting go. Kayla feels a little bit more relaxed realizing there was nothing unique about the kiss. Sure it was nice kiss, tasting like chlorine and beer. But no sparks, no great passionate emotions from any of them. That confirms that this really is just a revenge plan to both. Nothing weird going on. That’s good, Kayla thinks and smiles.   
“I think we need to practice that more, that wasn’t really a media-persuading performance,” he grins tugging on the dark curl that fell over her shoulder.  
“We’ll make it perfect, don’t worry.” 

Ryan flips on the bed and Carter shoots him accusing look before curling back down by his feet.  
He just finished call to Erika. She almost burst out of joy hearing he’s got a girlfriend, even if not exactly real girlfriend. However, Ryan had to swear at least four times that Kayla is trustworthy and the whole plan won’t fuck up the whole situation even more just because she decides to dig for gold. He laughed at the image of Kayla being a gold digger. The only thing Ryan isn’t super happy about is that Erika demanded Kayla’s number to call her and set her up for a quick PR training. Ryan was absolutely sure Kayla’s going to kill him for that – there isn’t anything she hates more than being instructed on what she should and shouldn’t do. But Ryan figures the training can’t be anything that bad – he’s been through the long detailed version and he’s survived. Erika can’t manage to stuff Kayla up with all the bullshit before Wednesday anyway, that’s just impossible with all the school work Kayla has. So that being said, Ryan feels a little bit better giving Erika her number.  
He looks down at the phone and without thinking hits the speed dial.  
“It’s midnight, you should sleep,” he gets from the other end immediately.  
“Hey what’s up, Mike, how are you?” Ryan asks ignoring his comment.  
“You wake me up in the middle of the night just to ask me how I am?” Michael asks unbelievably and now that Ryan thinks about it, he might sound a little bit sleepy.  
“I just wanted to talk,” he explains.  
“Cool. So I’ll let you talk to Herman while I got back to sleep, he’s good at listening,” Mike says and Ryan hears shifting before snorting and then he feels like Herman licked his ear through the phone.  
“No, Mike!” he calls but he only gets Herman’s sigh. “Michael!”  
“What?” he groans right when Ryan considers hanging up.   
Ryan frowns. “I wanted to talk to you, you asshole.”  
Michael sighs and Ryan can imagine how he rubs his eyes before collapsing back to his pillow. “So what you wanted to talk about?”  
“Nothing particular,” Ryan shrugs. “Just wanted to hear you, I guess…”  
“Well, it’s really awesome to hear you too, Ry, but it would be really great if we could hear each other sometime during daytime…” Michael mumbles and Ryan senses he’s falling back to sleep. Maybe calling him right now wasn’t that great idea after all. But it’s been too long since he’s her that lisp.   
“Hey Mike?”  
“Hm…”  
“Are you coming Wednesday for that Speedo thing in Miami?”  
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?”  
“Don’t you wanna hit G-spot before? We could like hang out and stuff,” Ryan offers.  
“What stuff?”  
“Like, you know-“  
Michael doesn’t let him finish. “Will you wake me up at night like this when I sleep there?” he mumbles.  
“You know I can’t make any promises in this, Mike,” Ryan grins and hears Michael snort a laugh.  
“Alright, I’ll stop by,” he says. “Buy food, I don’t want to starve like the last time,” he commands before hanging up.  
Ryan puts the phone back on the nightstand and rolls on his side. He smiles. Seems like a successful day today, he thinks.


	3. You were like my lover and my best friend, all wrapped in one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from Rihanna's song "Rehab"

Honestly, Kayla is not so pumped about the training. She finds it super annoying and what is more important – totally unnecessary. Like come on, she knows that saying something about how this is a great prank at the red carpet in Miami would totally ruin the whole prank. Duh. She’s not stupid, she doesn’t need Erika to tell her that. Also, she doesn’t need her to remind her that holding hands is a key move in here. And that a kiss would be awesome for the media. Kayla just sighs. She and Ryan have mastered the fooling technique over the years, they will pull it in an amazing manner that even their families wouldn’t suspect them for not being love doves. Which they probably won’t anyway, because Erika made her to swear not to tell anyone. She even threatened with physical violence. Kayla’s sister is so going to fall hard for this…  
She means to stop by at Ryan’s to scold him for the whole Erika situation, but she just can’t manage to find some free time during the midterm exams during Monday and Tuesday. She barely fitted Erika in her schedule, meeting with her instead of lunch, which was clearly a stupid idea since it was waste of time and she was hungry for the rest of the day.  
She walks through the campus at Tuesday afternoon, deciding to call Ryan to discuss tomorrow. Because Erika likes to look like someone very organized but the only thing Kayla knows about tomorrow is that it’s a party in Miami. Very detailed information. When the phone starts to ring, she thinks about how stupid idea it is to hope that Ryan knows something more. However, to her great surprise, he does.  
“So if it’s a Speedo party, do I have to wear a bikini?” Kayla asks horrified.  
Ryan laughs. “No, you’ll be fine with a dress. We, I mean we the swimmers, will be presenting the new Speedo suits during that night, that’s what’s Speedo about it.”  
“Oh, dress,” Kayla exhales relieved. It’s been only four months since Christmas, since she’s eaten like three tons of candy, and she’s not sure her body looks bikini-red-carpet-perfect at the moment. But she guesses she can pull off a dress. “Do we have to be like color coordinated, or something?” she checks.  
“I guess?”  
“Then it’s going to be super easy, anyway,” Kayla snorts a laugh. “Because the only red carpet appropriate dress I have is black.”  
“No way, black is so against Miami spirit. And against Lochte spirit, too,” he laughs. “I pick you at four alright? We’re hitting Ralph Lauren.”  
Kayla doesn’t even manage to gasp before Ryan hangs up.

Ryan stops the car right in front of Kayla’s apartment. She runs out of the door, tying her hair in high pony tail. She hops in.  
“You made me skip like two mandatory classes because of this. You are the worst boyfriend I could ask for,” she frowns at him.  
Ryan laughs and puts the car on drive. “No fucking way, I made you skip classes in order to spend time with you and pick you up an awesome dress. I think that makes me the best boyfriend ever,” he grins and Kayla just punches his leg before looking out of the window.  
“So…” Kayla looks around the street from the car when they park at Ralph Lauren.  
“So?” Ryan looks at her quizzically pulling the keys out of ignition.  
“People are watching.”  
“So?” he says confused. “I still don’t get your point.” He gets out of the car, straightening his t-shirt.  
Kayla scowls at him over the car roof. “I mean, do we do the boyfriend-girlfriend thing now, or is it just a red carpet thing?” she says in a low voice  
Ryan shrugs. “Erika said we need to be responsible in this. You never know how much paps are watching you at the moment.”  
Kayla looks around the street. “Probably like a hundred,” she snorts.  
“Probably,” Ryan nods with a smile. “So let’s be responsible, honey,” he winks and stretches a hand towards her. “Or do you mind holding my hand?”  
Kayla rolls her eyes and takes it, intertwining they fingers. She leans closer to him as they go to the store. “You’re weird,” she whispers to him. Ryan just grins.  
“So you pick a dress and I pick a matching suit after. Deal?” he says looking around the store.  
Kayla gives him an unsure look. “Ryan, like, have you seen the prices?”  
He snorts. “It’s not like I can’t afford it. Plus we’re not buying it anyway, well… unless you want me to buy the dress which would be totally fine. I bet I can make the lady to give us the things for free anyway.”  
“The fame got to your brain a little, huh?” she teases.  
“How can I help you?” a young lady approached them, a big smile on her face. Probably something they have in their job description, Kayla thinks. Or Ralph Lauren employees are the happiest people in the world.  
“A nice party dress for my beautiful lady in here and a matching suit for me, please,” Ryan says politely and Kayla stops at how “my beautiful lady” referring to her sounds from his mouth. She shakes her head at the thought. It’s probably something she needs to get used to. Plus, she should find a way how to sneak some love word into her part of conversation more, anyway.  
The lady shows Kayla the way to women’s department.  
“Pick something super sexy and don’t let it be boring black,” Ryan calls at her. She sends him a kiss and a wink over her shoulder, feeling particularly proud of doing it. Now she feels like they look like a couple in love.  
Ryan slumps down on a leather couch they have there by the changing rooms and pulls out his iPhone. He checks the internet, looking for nothing specific, and listens as Kayla almost screams “that’s the one, I want this!” over the store and smiles.  
“Ryan, which one do you think is better?”  
Kayla comes to him holding who hangers in her hands, one [bright red short dress](http://images.asos-media.com/inv/media/5/0/5/9/2349505/image4xxl.jpg) and [one in a wine shade with chiffon flowing skirt](http://images.asos-media.com/inv/media/1/8/3/3/2593381/wine/image1xxl.jpg).  
He laughs. “I think you actually need to try it out first. But I’m sure you’ll look awesome in both,” he winks at her even though he already knows seeing the [deep V cut on the back ](http://images.asos-media.com/inv/media/5/0/5/9/2349505/image2xxl.jpg)that the bright red one is a winner for him. Kayla disappears in the changing room along with the lady and with a wide smile on her face. He laughs to himself shaking his head at how much Kayla is excited about this. Almost like he is about picking up shoes.  
The phone in his hands goes off and he looks at the screen. He smiles widely.  
“What’s up, MP, you awake now?”  
“Just landed. Where are you?”  
Ryan scratches his forehead. “Ralph Lauren with Kayla.”  
“Who’s Kayla?” Michael asks suspiciously.  
“Man, I’ll tell you about her later. That’s a super long story that I need you to know,” Ryan sighs.  
“A- Alright…” Ryan can almost see the way Michael frowns right now. He doesn’t like when there are secrets kept away from him, but it’s not like Ryan can explain right now. “So I suppose you can’t pick your best friend at the airport right now, huh?”  
“No, I’m sorry. You can either take a cab or wait there, I can pick you up on my way home.”  
“Nah,” Michael grunts. “I think I’ll go with the cab option. You always spend eternity picking up suits at Ralph Lauren…”  
“So I want to look good, shoot me for it!” Ryan says offended.  
“Fuck you,” Michael mumbles.  
“Maybe…” Ryan grins. “But not if you keep being that grumpy as you sound right now.”  
Michael actually laughs. “Hey, I’m a busy man and I got my ass down here 24 hours before I had to just because of you and you’re not even at the airport to greet me properly? What am I supposed to do?”  
“I’ll make it up to you,” Ryan whispers into the phone and grins.  
“Fine.” Michael pauses and Ryan can hear him talk to someone at the other end. “So I’ll take the cab,” he says after a moment. “Get home early or I’m eating your whole fridge out.”  
Ryan laughs. “Fine, I’ll make it quick. See ya!”  
“Who was that?” Kayla peeks from behind the curtain.  
“Mike.”  
“Mike who?”  
“Mike the greatest Olympian ever…”  
“Oh…” Kayla says taken aback. Then she shakes her head and steps out, dropping it. “So how do I look?”  
Ryan’s face splits into a wide smile. “Turn around,” he says and Kayla spins on her toes. “Uuu…” Ryan moans appreciatively when he sees the V cut showing her naked back all the way down to her butt. “Looking sexy as hell,” he winks at her ignoring the blush that creeps up the shop lady’s face, who suddenly feels like she’s awkwardly disturbing. She takes a few steps back to give them personal space. It’s not like they pay much attention to her.  
“Take it, you look stunning,” Ryan says.  
Kayla looks at herself in the mirror and waives her hand at him. “You just say that because you ‘want to make it quick’,” she does air quotes as to echo his previous conversation.  
Ryan stands up and leans against the wall of the changing room. “I liked it even before you put it on,” he explains offended.  
“Liar,” Kayla says to his reflection in the mirror.  
“Hey, I’m not lying! Think about it,” he says tugging at the chiffon sleeves of the other dress hanging on the wall. “Why would you look like an angel if you could look as devilish as you are now?” He wiggles his eyebrows.  
Kayla shoots him a look and turns a bit in front of the mirror to see the back of the dress.  
“Alright, I look amazing,” she admits after a second. “I’ll take it. Now go and find something that would make you look at least half-breathtaking as I do now. I don’t want you to embarrass me in Miami,” she teases.

“Mike?” Ryan calls as he enters his house.  
“Living room!”  
Ryan hangs his new suit on the doorknob and peeks in. Michael sits on the couch, feet up the table and Carter lying next to him licking the spoon Michael holds in front of him.  
“Finally!” Michael looked up to him.  
“Are you two eating my ice cream?”  
“Carter totally suggested it. I couldn’t resist his look.”  
Ryan flops on the couch next to him. “I’m not even sure dogs are supposed to eat ice cream.”  
“He looks fine. I think strawberry flavored one is his favorite,” Michael says, taking a scoop of the ice cream. He tries to ignore Ryan stare at the spoon at he takes it to his mouth.  
“Bring your own spoon,” he says as he meets Ryan’s eyes and rolls the frozen cream on his tongue.  
Ryan smiles lightly shaking his head. “It’s not about the ice cream,” he mumbles and leans in, licking the spot on Mike’s lip where he got a bit of a strawberry topping. Michael shivers at the touch, closing his eyes and gripping the ice cream box in his hands tightly. “Long time, no see, MP.” Ryan smiles against his lips and shifts to straddle his thighs. He takes the box of Michael’s hands and puts it on the coffee table behind his back before settling in his lap. Michael moans loudly. Ryan leans in and bites his neck gently, soothing the spot with his tongue and he feels Michael gulp.  
Ryan runs his hands under his shirt, circling his abs, kissing deeply, trying to earn some kind of reaction. When nothing happens he bites Michael’s lip more than he intends to.  
“Ouch!” Michael whines shoving Ryan away a little. He runs a finger over his lip. “ _What the hell_ , man?” he looks at Ryan accusingly.  
Ryan frowns at him. “Could you like… _cooperate_?” He takes Michael’s hands and locks it around his waist.  
“No?” he looks at him like at an idiot. “You explicitly said you would make it up to me, so I’m waiting. You do the work.”  
“Fine,” Ryan spits frowning and gets up leaving Michael alone on the couch.  
Michael sighs, running his hand over his face, considering that maybe he just went too far with this. He forgot how touchy Ryan can get. “Hey, Ryan…” he says, but Ryan doesn’t stop on his way to kitchen. “Ryan! Come back.”  
“No!” Ryan turns around and leans against the kitchen island. “I’m not going to make out with a figurine. Even Carter would be a better material than you.”  
Michael blinks in surprise. “You would make out with _Carter_?” he squints at Ryan, still believing he heard it wrong.  
“At least he would fucking kiss back, you asshole!” Ryan grunts at opens the fridge taking a beer.  
Michael sighs and stands up. He walks over to Ryan. “Sorry,” he says.  
“You’re not.”  
“I am.”  
“You just say that because you realized you’re not getting any tonight.” Ryan takes a sip and lifts himself to sit on the island.  
Michael raises an eyebrow. “Am I not?”  
“No,” Ryan frowns.  
“Really?” Michael pouts pulling out his puppy eyes. Ryan looks away from him. “Come on, I flew all the way from B-more just to look at your back?” He slips a hand around his waist.  
Ryan looks at him. “You had your chance,” he points to the couch, “and you refused.”  
Michael tilts his head back and looks at the ceiling. “I’m sorry, can we like… start again?” he suggests and steps between his legs. He doesn’t wait for an answer, grabs his waist and pulls him in for a kiss. When Ryan kisses back, he takes it as a yes.  
Ryan quickly set his beer away and grabs Michael’s hair to pull him close. He bites at his lip gently this time, the way he knows drives Michael a little crazy. He hooks his leg over Michael’s and grinds their hips together, earning loud moans from both of them. Michael pulls Ryan’s shirt up and over his head in a swift motion and shoves him to lie on the island. Ryan hisses painfully as his back hits the marble with force, but Michael covers his mouth with his quickly and that makes everything better.  
Michael runs his hand up Ryan’s sides, kissing down his jaw and he feels him shivers. He smiles when he sucks on the spot on Ryan shoulder that he knows got Ryan lose his mind.  
“Jesus, Mike,” Ryan moans and throws his head back involuntarily, hitting the hard marble.  
Michael smirks and continues kissing down Ryan’s chest. Ryan breath hitches when Michael scratches his teeth over his abs.  
“Oh god…” Ryan moans closing his eyes and weaving his fingers into Michael’s hair.  
Michael circles his navel with a tongue, earning another series of moans.  
“Mike…”  
He looks up at him. “What’s up?” he asks with a smirk.  
“Stop fucking teasing!”  
Michael nods with a smile and pulls at Ryan pants, exposing his hipbone. He licks it before biting at the skin. Ryan twitches and grips the edge of the island, knocking the beer can over in the process. It falls down and the beer spills everywhere. It’s not like either one of them cares anyway…

They lie next to each other in Ryan’s bed, breathing heavily.  
“I kind of missed this…”  
“Yep. It’s good to be in Florida, again,” Michael exhales staring at the ceiling trying to pull himself together. Ryan just nods and curls up to him laying a hand on Michael’s heaving chest.  
“So…”  
“So?” Michael looks down at him.  
“I wanted to tell you about Kayla.”  
Michael lays his head back down remembering. “Yeah. Who’s Kayla?”  
“She like… kind of my girlfriend.”  
Michael shoots his head back up, looking at him with wide eyes.  
“She is your _what_?”


	4. I choose to be happy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from Rihanna's "Diamonds"

“Dude, you call me down here and after _this_ ,” he motions over them lying on the bed, “you tell me you have a girlfriend? Like it’s no fucking deal? Get off me!” he pushes Ryan away with force. He swings his legs down and sits on the edge of the bed. He flexes his arms, gripping the mattress and Ryan can clearly tell he’s angry.

“Mike, it’s not like that,” Ryan reaches towards him, placing a hand on his shoulder, but Michael bats it away.

“Don’t touch me!” he grunts.

Ryan places it back calmly. “Dude-“

Michael shakes it off. “Stop, don’t even-“

 “Shut up and listen,” he says firmly and sits cross-legged. “Let me explain, because you don’t even know what you’re hating about.”

Michael looks at him over the shoulder and Ryan takes it as a permission to speak. So he does. He tells him everything. From how Kayla’s a great friend, over to how he got the idea and Erika approved it to how they are now a sweetheart couple even though they aren’t.

“Any questions?” he finished his explanation.

Michael looks at him with a raised eyebrow. “Why would I have any?”

Ryan sighs rolling his eyes. “Mike, it’s important to me that you understand this. I don’t want you to feel like… like I’m cheating on-“

“Which you basically are,” Michael steps in.

“I am not! That’s the point, weren’t you listening?” Ryan frowns at him.

“Alright, alright…” He pauses and shifts on the bed to face Ryan again. He studies his hands for a moment. “So you’re not really together?”

Ryan swallows any comments on how he just said that like a million times. “We are not,” he repeats once again.

“And she knows it’s fake.” Michael looks up at him.

Ryan nods. “Totally fake.”

“But you have to like hold her hand and hug and kiss her at the red carpet.”

“Well, obviously,” Ryan gives him a look. “That’s what boyfriends do…”

“But once you’re out of public…”

“…we’re back to being just friends,” Ryan finishes instead of him. 

Michael nods and lays back on his spot in the bed. “Cool.”

Ryan looks at him suspiciously. “Cool?”

“Yep,” he nods again. “Cool.”

“So you can like… live with that?”

“I guess…”

The truth is that Michael doesn’t know exactly. How could he, when he doesn’t have the slightest idea what to expect. But now he feels like he can survive a picture of Ryan holding hands with a girl, knowing that they’re just pretending.

 

Sure, Kayla knows Ryan texted her last night that because of their early afternoon flight to Miami, he’s got earlier training, and therefore he can’t go on their regular Wednesday breakfast. But that Ryan can’t participate doesn’t mean Kayla can’t eat breakfast with him. So she sneaks in the university pool at half past six in the morning with a fresh coffee and some donuts in a paper bag.

The pool deck is almost empty, there are only a few swimmers occupying about half of the lanes. Kayla makes her way to lane four, rolls her sweats up her knees, kicks her flip-flops aside and sits down by the starting block, feet dangling in the cool water. She takes a sip of her coffee and waits until Ryan reaches the wall.

“Hey,” she greets when he looks up at her. She takes a bite of the donut.

Ryan takes his goggles off, moving them to his forehead. There’s a surprise flashing over his face before he gives her a smile. “You can’t eat at the pool deck.”

“Says who?”

“Says the sign there,” Ryan points on the wall behind her.

Kayla stops chewing and turns around to look at it. She glances back at Ryan with wide eyes and places a hand on his head. “Are you sick, Ry? Since when do you care about rules?”

He grins at her and grab the block. “Yeah, right. I don’t know why order hit me so much suddenly.” He knows it’s because of Michael. When Michael comes to Ryan, he always brings his sense of precise order that is a little contagious. “Did you bring one for me, too?” Ryan teases, pointing at the donut with strawberry frosting.

Kayla frowns at him. “No way!” she snorts a laugh and takes a great bite. “You’re training, you need to eat healthy. No sweets, that means no donuts. Which is a real shame since they are _so_ good!” She squeaks and leans back when he hit the water with his palm splashing her. She splashes back with her feet kicking in the water, which doesn’t really count like revenge since Ryan is all wet already.

“Fuck you, Ryan!” she laughs.

A swimmer approaches the wall with long easy strokes in the next lane. He pulls his arm through the water one last time before doing a flip turn.

“Where have I seen that butt?” she mumbles as the swimmer places his feet on the wall and pushes off in the opposite direction.  Kayla watches him closely.

Ryan rolls his eyes. “It’s Mike.”

“Mike who?” she asks without taking her eyes off him.

“There aren’t many Mikes that made their ass famous in a speedo, Kayla…”

She turns to Ryan. “Oh, you mean that’s Phelps?” she points at the swimmer and Ryan nods, giving her the look like she’s the most stupid person around. To her defense, Kayla is not that huge swimming fan so she could recognize a swimmer from only his arms, feet, swimming cap and butt, all almost covered by white splashes of water. She turns her look back to Michael.

“I didn’t know he had that flat ass…” she comments earning a punch to her shin from Ryan.

“Ouch!” she hisses and rubs the place where he hit her harder than necessary.

That ass is just fine, Ryan wants to say but rather bites his tongue. “He came to visit yesterday and he’s leaving for Miami with us.”

Kayla shrugs casually. “Cool,” she says and bites at the next donut. “Hope glory didn’t get to his head. I warn you, if he’s annoying or egoistic about it, I’m not talking to him,” she says with a serious face. And she means it. She’s already met a few people that thought that if they achieved something, they own the world unconditionally. And she doesn’t have time to putting up with that. If he puts on airs in front of her, she’ll be ignoring him in a great manner, no matter how much gold medals he will throw at her.   

Ryan just smirks, because he doesn’t know anyone being more humble about what they achieved than Michael. “You surely don’t know a thing about him, do you?”

“Nope,” she says with a pop of her lips and smiles almost proudly. “Eight golds in Beijing, greatest Olympian ever and flat ass. That’s all.”

Ryan lets go of the block and crawls over the lane line to Michael’s lane to distract him from his laps.

“I promise you, you’ll like him,” he says to her as he steps on the edge of the pool by the wall, steadying himself by gripping the plastic line and watching Michael swimming right back to him. “He’s just your kind of guy,” he winks at her.

As Michael is coming closer looking firmly at the pool bottom, Ryan considers running away since Michael can’t see him. But Ryan knows it’s late already and all he can do is just flex his muscles. As Michael makes his last stroke before the turn, he notices Ryan and pulls his head out of water. He stretches his arm, placing it against Ryan’s chest to both stop himself and reduce the impact. And also because he feels like it. He slides his hand down Ryan’s abs underwater before grabbing the lane line.

“What the hell?” he asks.

“Dude,” Ryan exhales relieved, “I almost though you won’t notice me, do the flip turn and bounce of my stomach,” he smiles. “That would be brutal. Your feet would probably dig a hole through my abs…”

“So why are you standing here, in my lane?” Michael asks confused.

“Wanted to stop you. I probably could just jump on you, but that would like… break your back or something.” Michael shivers at the thought and smiles, shaking his head. “Hey, this is Kayla.” Ryan points at her. Michael turns around and notices a girl sitting on the opposite side of the block in next lane. “Kay, that’s Mike, the world’s most unpretentious guy ever.”

Kayla leans down, stretching her hand around the block to the next lane and Michael reaches out to her to shake it.

“Hi.”

“Nice to meet you,” Michael says politely but Kayla can see the suspicious look in his eyes.

“He knows,” Ryan says and looks at Kayla.

She blinks then nods theatrically. “Awesome, Ryan!” she smiles then gives him a look. “Knows what?” she asks confused, because at the moment there are probably a million thoughts of what Michael could possibly know.

“He knows about us, you fool,” Ryan rolls his eyes. “Like about us being or not being together.”

“Oh,” Kayla gasps surprised and flits her eye from one to another. “I thought Erika said to keep it top secret,” she says unsure.

“Mike is cool,” Ryan says and pats Michael’s back. “He won’t run and tell the media.” And it’s not like Ryan can do this without Michael knowing the truth. That would be just insane. And it would probably fuck things between them up. Even though Ryan doesn’t know exactly what it is, that’s going on in their lives, he knows he doesn’t want to lose it. So he needs Michael to know the truth.

Kayla thinks about it for a second, then shrugs. “Alright,” she says and takes a sip of the coffee. If Ryan wants it like this, she’s not going to stop him.


	5. I guess I'm guilty 'til proven innocent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from Gym Class Heroes "Guilty As Charged"

The airport officer nods at Kayla and hands her the passport back.

“Enjoy your visit, ma’am.”

“Thanks,” she says and slips past him.

The crowd of people waiting outside is seen clearly already. Ryan grins and stretches a hand towards her and she grabs it.

“Ready to be my girlfriend?” he asks.

“Wait,” Kayla lets go of his hand and digs through her purse. She pulls out sunglasses and puts them on. “Every celebrity needs sunglasses,” she explains herself when Ryan rolls his eyes.

“You look super awesome,” Ryan winks and places a quick kiss on her cheek. “Babe.”

Kayla looks at him skeptically, even though Ryan can’t mostly see it over the glasses. “They are like two hundred feet away, you don’t have to do this _now_.”

“I know, just trying what it sounds like. Don’t hate,” he squeezes her hand.

Michael hauls his duffel onto his shoulder and skips past them both, slightly elbowing Ryan into his hip just to remind him what he promised. Unless it’s necessary, they are just friends, he said. And reporters a mile away doesn’t equal _necessary_ to Michael.

“How did they find out when we’re arriving, anyway,” he mumbles as they catch up with him.

“Well, since this was today’s only flight from Gainesville to here, I think they figured out pretty easily,” Ryan says and opens the last glass doors that are separating them from the crowd.

There is loud screaming everywhere immediately and Kayla is kind of taken aback. Yeah, she expected some things, like she knows Ryan is popular and Michael is, too, but she didn’t expect it to be such… overwhelming. And Ryan can see it on her, she suddenly looks like she would rather run back into the airport hall and never come out again. However, he also knows that despite that, Kayla is not going to run away. Her pride and promises she made won’t let her. At least Ryan hopes. So he smiles at her supportively and squeezes her hand again. She clings to him tightly, dodging the microphone that was shoved to her face.

“Ryan, over here…!”

“Ryan!”

“Michael, how come you came with Ryan?”

“Guys, does anyone know, who she is?”

“Ryan, what is her name?”

“Are you guys dating?”

“Young lady, can I have a question…?”

Kayla tugs at Ryan’s hand and he leans his head closer to her.

“I’m gonna wait in the car, okay?” she says.

“We can just skip this, if you want,” he offers, but Kayla shakes her head resolutely.

“No skipping. Take your time, baby.”

Ryan smiles at her widely, because doesn’t matter how much Kayla doesn’t feel comfortable in a situation, she always manages to play along.

“Alright,” he nods and Kayla pushes her way through the crowd bravely, ignoring all the questions, and heads to the black Lincoln that Erika got them. Once she’s in, he turns back to the reporters.

“Were you guys holding hands?” someone asks and Ryan snorts a laugh.

“Clearly.” It’s not like he’s going to deny something everybody saw. That _they wanted them to see._

“Is she your girlfriend?”

“Yes,” Ryan nods and it still feels kind of weird to say that. He glances super fast at Michael who is standing a few feet away answering his portion of questions.

“What’s her name?”

“I’d like not to comment on that,” he shakes his head. “Privacy and stuff.” Ryan knows that making this a mystery will make them chase after the story even more. And that’s what he wants.

“Oh, come on, Ryan. Why don’t you tell us?”

Ryan laughs and tosses his hands. “Why would I?”

“We’re going to find out anyway,” someone comments.

“I’m sure you will…” Ryan says with a soft smile. “No more questions about her, please,” Ryan says to the crowd which hums in disagreement. He turns to a guy who is asking him about the upcoming meet in Orlando.

Keep denying, that’s the key, he tells himself.

 

“Phelps,” Michael says to a receptionist and she pulls out a set of card keys.

“There you go, sir. Number 315. A single room on the third floor. Enjoy your stay in here, sir.”

“Thanks,” Michael slides the keys into his pocket and steps aside.

“Reservation on Ryan Lochte.”

The receptionist searches through her computer again while Ryan taps his fingers on the desk. He glances back at Kayla, who is sitting on her suitcase by the hotel elevator typing something in her phone.

“Here, sir.” The lady slides the keys to him. “Room number 409 on the fourth floor. A king sized bed suite for you, sir. Enjoy your visit,” she smiles politely.

“Thanks,” Ryan smiles back at her. He looks at Michael and the smile freezes on his face. “What?” Michael is frowning at him. “What?” Ryan asks again.

“King suite? Dude, really?” he scowls at him and shoots a look to Kayla. He takes Ryan aside, gripping his arm harder than he intends. “You said that out of public, there is no relationship,” he hisses.

“Mike, what was I supposed to do? It’s not like I can get a separate room, they would find out, you know that…” Ryan whispers.

Right, Michael knows that. But that doesn’t change much to him. He lets Ryan’s arm go, but frowns at him even more, just to equal it.

“Mike, seriously, it’s nothing.”

“You’re sleeping with her in _one bed_!”

“Dude, chill…”

“No, I’m not going to fucking chill, Ryan!” he raises his voice involuntarily. And he is angry. He doesn’t really know why exactly Ryan being in one bed with Kayla makes him angry, but it does. Oh, yeah, he remembers. It’s because he and Ryan have been sleeping together. They agreed to being exclusive, even though neither of them said it out loud. It’s not like Michael is jealous. No, he would never admit that, even to himself. He’s just angry.

“It’s just one night-“

“We didn’t agree on this,” Michael spits out angrily.

“Fine,” Ryan grits, “I’m going to fucking sleep on the floor if that makes you happy!” He punches his arm and turns on his heel heading to Kayla. He pushes the elevator button with force ignoring Michael calling after him. Kayla looks up, her eyes flitting from Ryan to Michael and back.

“Is… Is everything alright?” She stands up.

“Yeah, everything’s fucking awesome,” Ryan grits out. The sliding door opens and he enters, Kayla follows him, pulling her suitcase with her.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Kayla asks when the elevator stars moving.

“Not really…” Ryan looks at her, realizing he’s being an asshole to her without reason. He smiles at her apologetically and Kayla immediately knows what he means. She pats his shoulder sympathetically.

 

Kayla hangs her new dress on the closet door.

“Where is your suit, Ryan? You might want to hang it up otherwise it’ll get all wrinkled and you will be far away from looking sharp tonight.”

“On the chair!” Ryan calls from the bedroom.

Kayla stops giving the ceiling a look. “I said _you_ might want to hang it,” she point out.

“I love you, Kayla.”

“Gosh,” she sighs with smile. “Fine, I’ll hang it,” she mumbles.

“I know you’re the greatest of all time,” Ryan says, suddenly reminding himself of Michael. He bites the inside of his mouth and gulps, pushing that though away. He especially tried not to think about how what happened in the lobby is a clear sign of Michael’s jealousy. And he tries not to think about it how good and warm it makes him feel, knowing that. Cause that is just wrong. He is angry at him right now, he reminds himself.

“When are we leaving?” Kayla asks straightening the suit jacket with her palm. Ryan leans against the doorframe.

“I don’t know,” he shrugs folding his arms on his chest. “Will we let the media wait or not?” he grins and Kayla grins back.

“We will,” she says with a rebellious look.

“Seven it is, then,” Ryan lift his arm and they high five on that with a laugh. “You are the best wingman I could ask for doing this,” he says as she passes him to the bedroom, continuing the unpacking.

She looks up to him from the suitcase. “I know,” she sticks her tongue out.

“Thanks,” Ryan winks.

“Don’t thank me, I’ve not even done anything yet. You never know, I might spill everything out on red carpet and just let you down, you know that,” Kayla teases.

“You wouldn’t do that,” Ryan snorts a laugh with confidence. “That would mean you would spoil the funniest prank of the year and you don’t do that.”

“You’re right.”

There’s a knock on the door and Ryan reaches to it. He finds Michael on the doorstep.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Michael asks.

Ryan takes a breath. “Yeah,” he nods.

“I… I mean, like, can we talk _alone_?” he looks at Kayla unpacking the suitcase on the floor. She pushes her hair behind her ear looking at him confused for a second before catching up. She glances at Ryan just to make sure there isn’t the ‘please-don’t-leave-us-alone-under-any-circumstances’ look. Ryan gives her a light approving nod.

“Yeah, sure,” she smiles. “I’m going to check around the hotel,” she slips past them through the door.

“Thanks Kay,” Ryan gives her a wink immediately regretting doing it when he sees the frown Michael gives him. It seems like some kind of reflex now. He decides to ignore it and pushes the door open wider. “Come in,” he gestures.

Michael sits on the edge of the bed and Ryan follows him.

“Sorry,” Michael says.

“What?”

Michael looks at Ryan, trying to read in his face whether he actually really didn’t understand him or he just wants to make him to say it again. He can’t decide.

“I am sorry,” he repeats more clearly now and looks down at his hands. “For… you know… overreacting down there.” He looks up at Ryan with hopeful look and Ryan just stares at him, so he continues. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you, I guess. Actually, I shouldn’t have made a big deal out of it. But I didn’t expect it, to be honest. The fact kind of… caught me off guard, I guess?” He looks up at him. “Can you like, say something, Ry?” he almost pleads because the silence is killing him.

Ryan smiles softly. “It’s okay. I should have probably told you before…”

Yeah, would have been nice, Michael thinks, but he knows better than saying it loud at the moment. So he just nods.  

“Sorry…” Ryan offers. “It won’t happen again.” He looks at Michael. “I just want to make sure you’re really okay with it, still.”

Michael nods, because, really, what is he supposed to say.

“Dude, and the one bed thing…” Ryan scratches his head and looks at the sheets. “We're really not gonna do anything in here,” he assures him.

“Alright,” Michael mumbles but it doesn’t sound convinced.

“Mike, trust me,” Ryan insists.

Michael looks at him. “I do, really,” he says but even he himself hears the uncertainty in his voice.

“The bed’s big enough so we probably won’t be able to even see each other on the other end of the mattress,” Ryan grins at him. “Dude, seriously. Nothing is going down tonight.” He pushes Michael back on the mattress. Michael gives him a surprised look as he straddles him. Ryan leans in to him. “We’re certainly not doing this.”  He brushes his lips over Michael’s softly. “Nor this.” He kisses him, sucking on his lip. Michael is so taken aback that he doesn’t even manage to kiss back before Ryan pulls away. “And by no means we’re doing this,” he says and grinds their hips together earning a soft moan from Michael. He leans down and kisses Michael’s neck. “But since Kayla and I are not doing this,” he whispers before kisses, “it would be shame not to seize the opportunity of having a king size bed.”

“Ryan, we can’t,” Michael says because he feel like he has to. It isn’t rational. But on the other hand, Ryan sucking on his neck and curling his fingers into his hair is not so rational either.

“Why not?” Ryan mumbles, breath hot against Michael’s skin. Michael whimpers and wraps his hands around Ryan’s waist.

“Kayla might come back.”

Ryan grins widely against his skin, before moving up his jaw. He kisses Michael deeply. “She won’t, dude. We have decently working treaties. She’s not coming back before I call her.”

“You know what?” Michael mumbles against his lips and slips his hand under waistband of his jeans. “She might be kinda awesome.” He squeezes and Ryan’s hips shoot down against his.

“She is,” Ryan smiles. “But let’s not talk about her while doing this,” he suggests and work Michael’s zipper.

Michael can’t agree more. 


	6. Don't let it go to your head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title's the name of a song from Fefe Dobson

Kayla is looking at her feet, digging into a car carpet with her heel. She’s getting nervous and Ryan senses it.

“What if they ask as how did we meet and stuff?”

Ryan slides on the seat closer to her and throws an arm around her shoulders.

“Improvisation,” he says simply and smiles at her supportively. “We’ll build the story as we go along. We’re good at this. It’s gonna be fun.”

Kayla curls into him and watches as they pass the Miami Beach strip. Ryan runs his fingers over her arm absently and she relaxes.

The driver parks and Kayla can see the crowds already, flashes flashing bright.

“Ready?” Ryan asks her as if there is any way to back away now. Kayla nods anyway.

Ryan runs around the car, opening the door for her. He offers her a hand and Kayla takes it.

There is a bunch of photographers around them even before they reach the desk with sponsor logos. Through the flashes Ryan can’t see Michael who stammers during one of his million answers when he looks their way.

Kayla looks awesome in that dress, Michael thinks, and Ryan wearing that dark blue suit, perfectly fitting and stretching over his body, he looks even more awesome Michael remembers he ever had. Is that’s even possible. He has a sudden urge to jog to him, hug him, kiss him and run his palm over the dark cloth stretching over Ryan’s ass. But he can’t. For obvious reasons. And what he also can’t is to look at them a second longer because the way Ryan smiles at Kayla just isn’t normal and it sort of feels like Michael trips and falls. But he doesn’t actually, which is a good thing. ‘Cause Michael hates falling. So he turns back to the reporter waiting for him to answer her stupid question and focuses more.   

Kayla figures she was nervous for no reason. Her only worry is to smile and pose for the photos with Ryan. He wraps a hand around her waist, the other shoves into his pocket and kisses her hair for no reason. It just feels right, helping Kayla relax. She shoots him an amused smile, when Ryan’s hand slides a bit lower and he squeezes her butt. He just shrugs with a huge smile on his face.

 As for the questions part, it’s even easier for Kayla, because most of the interviews is handled by Ryan pretty easily. He gives hints here and there, then asks he reporters to respect his privacy and that’s that. Kayla just smiles from time to time, gives Ryan an adoring look and listens carefully to what he is saying so she can catch up with the story later. Meanwhile, she can just enjoy all the suspicious and surprised looks everybody is throwing their way.

Ryan grabs her hand as he leads her off the carpet and leans closer to her.

“They were so hungry after the story, they even offered me a magazine interview about us,” he shakes his head. “They’re all so stupid,” he whispers. “And we are so fucking awesome!” A Kayla just giggles. Because they are. Ryan is.

Ryan and Kayla versus media? One to nothing.

 

They chat with the people. Ryan introduces Kayla to some of his teammates or some official that attend the party too. She gets compliment on her dress form a bunch of nice female swimmers and a couple from the guys and that’s good. They talk about some random things and Kayla feels like she fits in. Which is a great thing.

During all that, Kayla tries not to forget being a good girlfriend. So she says “thanks, hun,” when Ryan brings her a glass of champagne. She also shoots a death look to a young hostess that asks Ryan for a photo together and when Ryan slips his hand on her back to pose for it, she slides her thin arm down and grabs his butt. Kayla clears her throat.

“Excuse me,” she says as she steps to them. “Wait a sec.” She reaches for her hand and places it back on Ryan’s back, where it is supposed to be. She smiles widely. “ _Now_ you can keep going.” The hostess looks like she wants to bite her head off.

When the group of hostesses takes their photos, Ryan curls to Kayla and slings his arm around her shoulders. He pulls her closer to him.

“Don’t be so jealous,” he teases.

“That ass is now mine,” she sneaks a hand under his suit jacket. “Nobody gets to touch it.”

Ryan chuckles and playfully bites at her ear.

Somebody clears their throat behind them and they turn to him.

“Oh, hey Mike,” Ryan smiles widely and Michael nods. He really tries to get the image of Kayla’s hand under Ryan’s suit out of his head. He straightens himself up, clenching his fists in his pockets.

“We- We should be going backstage. It’s time,” he says and hopes his voice sounds casual.

Ryan glances at his watch. They have a good half hour before they need to get to change into that super new Speedo suit. He looks confused at Michael, but gets a firm unreadable look back.

“Alright,” he shrugs and turns to Kayla. “I’ll see you in a few at the stage.”

“Good,” Kayla takes her hand back and smiles. “Go guys and be awesome,” she winks at them. “See you later,” she says before she mingles into the crowd making her way to the group of swimgirls she talked to earlier.

 “We got plenty of time, dude, what’s going on?” Ryan asks Michael, but he doesn’t answer. He just heads to the bathroom. Ryan smiles a little. “Oh, I see where this is going,” he calls after him knowingly and catches up with his pace. “You are so obvious, Mike,” Ryan smiles as he enters after him.

Michael makes sure the stalls are all empty before turning back to Ryan. “Shut up,” he mumbles and grabs his suit on the chest. He pushes him against the wall with force. Ryan hisses with pain, eyes wide and looking at Michael quizzically. He has no idea what is going on. He really thought this is going to be one of their super fast hookups they mastered during the years at swim meets, but instead Michael pushed him in not so loving manner and now he’s looking at him like he wants to punch him in the face, the vein on his neck becoming visible with anger. Ryan gulps, actually feeling worried. Michael can be threatening when he wants to. However, Ryan’s always had an impression he would never hurt him. After all they’ve been through, Michael was careful with him in… everything, meaning sex for the most part. It was almost unreal how much he cared about not putting Ryan through any sort of pain. He would never hurt him.

Well, at the moment Ryan isn’t so sure.

He wants to ask what is going on, but he’s afraid to speak. So he just stares back into Michael’s dark eyes full of anger. But Michael doesn’t let him go, nor does he speak, so after a minute Ryan decides to risk it.

“Mike?”  

Michael doesn’t answer, but Ryan notices his eyes getting a little softer. That gives him a bit of courage. He wraps his hands around Michael’s wrists and pulls them away a little.

“Mike, let me go,” he says carefully and tugs at his hands once more. Michael loosens his grip and steps back a little and the anger in his face is suddenly gone. Ryan feels like he can breath, finally.

“God, sorry,” Michael says and runs his palm over his face. He goes over to the sink and grips the edge of it, firmly looking down. He looks back up to Ryan. “I’m sorry,” he repeats. “I… I don’t know what I was thinking.” In fact, he knows exactly what he was thinking.

“What was _that_ about?”

“Nothing,” Michael lies and reaches the tap hoping running water would somehow drown out the blood pulsing in his ears.

Ryan straightens his suit, but doesn’t dare to step closer to him. “Mike-“

“It was nothing. I’m sorry.”

“That wasn’t nothing,” Ryan raises his voice. “You fucking _pushed_ me against the wall, Mike! I thought you gonna punch me straight in my face. So I want to know what’s the fucking deal,” he demands.

Michael looks at Ryan’s reflection in the mirror considering his options. There has to a shortcut in his brain when he says the truth.

“It’s Kayla…”

“Dude!” Ryan tosses his hands. “I specifically asked you about it like a million times and you said _you are okay with that_ ,” he points his finger at Michael.

Michael straightens himself up and turns to face him. “I _thought_ I would be.”

“And now you’re not?” Ryan says cynically.

Michael clenches his teeth. “No,” he grits. “Now I’m fucking not. It’s fucking nerve-wracking to look at you two.”

Ryan looks at him with blank, confused face.

“You know what?” Michael says and sets off to the door. “I’m outta here,” he slips around Ryan and reaches for the door knob. “I’m taking a cab back to the hotel when the presentation is over,” he says not looking at him and walks out.

Ryan just blinks at him taken aback. 


	7. If you feel like leaving I'm not gonna make you stay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from Enrique Iglesias' "Escape"

“What’s wrong?” Kayla asks. She sits on the bed and watches Ryan putting his suit back in the case.

He glances at her over his shoulder and smiles. “Nothing’s wrong.”

“C’mon, Ry, I know you. Something’s up cause you just don’t talk, which is weird considering it’s you. Man, you haven’t said ‘jeah’ in like four hours!”

Ryan giggles and zips the case. “You’ve been counting?”

“Yeah,” Kayla admits unashamed. “It’s not normal. At least in a Lochte kind of way.”

“No,” Ryan smiles again at her softly. “I’m okay.”

And that’s when Kayla knows he’s not. If nothing was going on, he would be ‘fine’, maybe ‘good’, but over the months Kayla’s noticed that when Ryan says  he is ‘okay’, he’s far away from the meaning of the sentence, actually.

“You sure you cool with this?” Ryan points at the bed. “I’m really just fine with sleeping on the couch,” he offers once more. Ryan feels like he’s asking so much of her by pretending they’re dating in public, that sleeping in one bed when they don’t have to might be just over the limit.

Kayla rolls her eyes.

“Don’t act like we’ve never happened to crash in one bed at some lame party,” she smirks and lays under the sheets.

Ryan shrugs and sinks in. The mattress dips and Kayla tries not to think about how this time it’s going to be different in a way of them not being drunk and actually be aware of each other. And that she’s in her PJs and without make-up next to him. She tries to shake the feeling off with a joke.  

“Of course it would be much better if you could wear like a hoodie and sweat pants to cover your awesome body instead of wearing just these basketball shorts, but I can deal,” she admits with a smile.

Ryan smirks. “I’ve _always_ known you find my body awesome,” he teases and lays his head on the pillow.

“It is awesome. It’s a common fact, everybody knows it, no need to discuss that,” Kayla defends herself and Ryan laughs. She pauses and stares at the ceiling. “You know what’s really bad?”

“Hm?” Ryan hums.

“That we have one sheet. And I tend to get very selfish about sheets when I’m sleeping.”

“No, that’s not problem at all,” he says. “I’ll hold onto my end and if you try to steal it away from me, you have to roll me with it. And there’s no way you’re managing that.”

Kayla turns to look at him and sees the wide teasing smile. “Alright,” she nods at looks back at the ceiling. “Bring it on, then…”

Ryan smirks and turns the bed light off.

After minutes of silence Kayla decides to say the one question turning in her head out loud.

“Did I do something wrong today?” she asks shyly.

Ryan turns his head towards her, even though he can’t exactly see her in the dark. “What?”

“Did I say something that like made you this… sad?”

“No,” Ryan laughs to prove how silly that is. “You did great,” he says and he means it.

“Then what-“

“It’s Michael,” Ryan cuts her off and gets back to staring at the ceiling. He doesn’t exactly know why he just told her that. He kind of feels like she deserves to know at least the outline of the truth. “We kinda…” He clears his throat. “We kinda got in a fight today at the party.”

Kayla turns on her side to him. “I’m sorry,” she says.

“It’ll be fine,” Ryan says and tries to smile. He realizes that even if he can’t exactly spill all the details to her, because he doesn’t feel like ‘we fought over you being my fake girlfriend with my fuckbuddy’ is the right thing to say, but still he feels a little bit better now that Kayla knows something is up.

He still doesn’t know what is going on with Michael. He hates that strange feeling that the argument left in him. Even though he feels like he is on that side that is right. He did everything he possibly could. He told him about Kayla before, reassured him million times it’s just a game they play, even gave him a chance to say no to it. A couple of times, even! And if Michael had said no, Ryan would have totally not do it. But Michael agreed, he said he was _okay with it_. So why all of sudden… Ryan shakes his head. He doesn’t want to think about it anymore. But he can’t stop wondering if Michael feels at least kind of guilty for practically attacking him.

“It’ll be fine, you’ll see,” Kayla says encouragingly. “Don’t worry about it.”

Ryan smiles at her gratefully and then realizes that she probably can’t see that in the dark. “Don’t worry, I won’t,” he adds to the smile and hopes he can live up to that.

“Would it be weird if I like… hugged you right now? You know, to make things better.”

Ryan cracks up. “No, I think it would be awesome, actually.”

“Okay,” Kayla exhales and moves closer to him on the bed. Ryan shifts to his side. She snuggles up to his chest, lays her head on his shoulder and hugs him tightly. “I love you, Ryan, don’t ever forget that,” she whispers.

He smiles against her neck. “Never.”

“I’m the best friend you’ll ever have.”

Ryan snorts a laugh. “Probably true.”

She wants to pull away, but Ryan holds her close. He doesn’t want to let go. She feels safe and caring. Kayla curls back to him, trying hard not to focus on the yards of soft skin and hard muscle she was touching.    

“Was this like a temporary hug,” she asks with a laugh, “or are we gonna stay like this?”

“I’m thinking about it…” And really, he is. As much feeling somebody close to him feels amazing and safe and comfortable and like he’s not lost, they are in Miami and the room is like four thousand degrees already without somebody curled to you, radiating another heat. And he also remembers he swore to Michael that he and Kayla won’t even touch in this bed. Fuck Michael. He swore never to hurt him and look when they are now.

Ryan pulls away a little. “I think I wanna stay like this, if you don’t mind.”

“Alright,” she says her voice shaking a little bit with nervousness, laying her head on Ryan’s pillow. “But don’t kick me or I will fight back and kick you out off the bed.”

“Deal,” he laughes and rests his hand on the small of her back.

Because fuck Michael.

 

The windows are covered by thick curtains, but there’re sun rays peeking from behind them.  It takes a few blinks of an eye for Kayla to remember where she is. The picture of half naked Ryan posing in the new Speedo Fastskin suits with his teammates and the picture of half naked Ryan slipping under the sheets next to her and holding her pop out in her head. She’s suddenly wide awake.

 She moves and realizes she’s on the complete edge of the bed, one leg hanging down. She finds her balance and turns around. Ryan is lying spread out on the other side of the bed, the whole sheet wrapped around him and Kayla snorts a laugh remembering she was supposed to be the one to steal it all. His breath is steady. He’s still sleeping. Kayla glances at the clock. 7:21AM. She shakes her head. A school habit of waking up around seven on Thursdays. Her class starts in 40 minutes. Not that she can do something about it, being on the other side of the state…  

She gets out of the bed careful not to wake Ryan up and tip-toes to her suitcase. She grabs her bathroom bag and some clothes before tip-toeing to bathroom.

Kayla decides to take a shower since they didn’t have enough energy for that last night. Her hair smells like smoke even though she doesn’t remember seeing anybody smoking yesterday. It’s occurs to her that smoke-smelling hair is a common phenomenon after a party, no matter what kind.

She lets the cool water run over her body and her mind wanders. She is really glad she woke up a few feet away from Ryan. Not that she regrets falling asleep curled up to him, but there was alcohol, adrenaline rush and he was sad. Anything could happen. And Kayla is glad that it didn’t. She’s glad she didn’t wake up tangled up in him. Sure, Ryan is attractive and after all the time, it’s still hard to look at his body in a Speedo and not blush. And Ryan knows it and secretly makes fun of her because of it. Also, he’s a great funny guy. Sometimes Kayla doesn’t know what she would do without him. But that’s that. Nothing beyond this point. And she hopes Ryan feels the same way, that he doesn’t take this as some kind of a hint of something she doesn’t mean. The whole relationship thing they’re doing doesn’t add much to Kayla’s certainty. She hopes this won’t get weird.

She feels like the best way would be to talk about it, but then again, Ryan isn’t much into talking. Any guys isn’t much into talking. And she doesn’t want to make a big deal of something which might not be a big deal. _She_ doesn’t want to make it weird.    

She quickly does her hair, puts on some make-up and changes into a top and shorts before sneaking from the bathroom quietly. She reaches for the textbook she brought with her and sits back on the bed, careful to not dip the mattress too much. Ryan shifts to his side, facing her, but doesn’t wake up. Kayla smiles and exhales a bit before settling against the headboard and opening the book.

 

Michael tries not to think about Kayla. He tries to not think about Ryan. He tries not to think about them together. He also tries not to think about what happened at the launch party. Most of all, he tries not to think about the flight they have to the Orland meet together. So basically Michael tries not to think about anything at all. But his mind can’t just stay blank, so he pulls out the goal sheet from his wallet angrily while eating breakfast in his bed and focuses on his times, going over and over them, counting strokes and underwater kicks until it’s time to leave.

It’s only a matter of minutes for Michael to leave the room since he didn’t really unpack his duffel bag. He just throws his phone and laptop into his backpack, grabs a Gatorade bottle from the night stand and he is out. There are a couple of his teammates waiting in the lobby by the door already and it makes Michael relax a bit, knowing it won’t be just him and Ryan alone.  

“Hey, Mike,” Matt says as Michael sits next to him on a couch. “You left early yesterday.”

Michael considers how rude it would be to just get up again and walk away. He doesn’t want to talk about yesterday. But he holds himself.

“I was tired,” he shrugs not looking at Matt. “Wasn’t feeling like partying, anyway.”

Matt nods lightly and Michael is glad he drops the theme. Michael pulls out his headphones from his bag and plugs it into his phone. He puts them on and drowns himself in the beats. Alone.

After a few minutes, some guest in the hotel lobby noticed the great Michael Phelps and the rest of the team, and even had enough courage to go and ask for the photos. Not that Michael would hate him for it, fans are important and mostly nice people to meet, but he knows how the wheel spins. When one comes up, there are ten other people immediately, wanting the photo too and an autograph and a hug and Michael just wishes he could crawl under the couch for the moment.

The line waiting is getting shorter and Michael poses for another picture with his fan. He feels like he’s destroying their photos since he most likely looks like shit today with his hair messy and an old Michigan hoodie on. He kind of feels bad for it.

The elevator clinks and Michael sees Ryan with Kayla get out of it in the corner of his eye. He ignores them turning away from them and drops down to a small boy and smiles for the photo his mother is taking.

The fans are at him the moment they notice him.

“Yeah, sure,” Ryan says to them friendly and Michael hates his mind for filtering his voice even if he’s feet away. “Just give me a sec.”

Michael glances their way involuntarily.

Ryan walks Kayla to the hotel door, hand firmly pressed around her waist. They stop in front of Michael and Michael feels like it’s on purpose, even though he knows it’s more of his fault for standing by the door. He looks down on the book he’s signing for some lady.

“Call me when you get back to G-spot, Kay.”

“I will.”

“Have a good flight.”

“Yep,” Kayla nods with a smile. “You, too.” Ryan hugs her. “Don’t forget to be awesome in Orlando,” she teases.

Ryan laughs. “Don’t worry, got my pink star speedo, I will kick ass in it.”

Kayla blushes at the image of Ryan in that little piece of speedo that pops out in her head. Ryan pulls her closer and leans down. He kisses the blush off her. Kayla is surprised for a split of a second, maybe even a bit embarrassed knowing all the fans and Ryan’s teammates are probably watching, but then she decides to screw that. That’s what they want them to do anyway, right? And Ryan’s lips are soft against her, there’s no reason not to do it. She curls her hands around his body and deepens the kiss.

Michael stomach clenches and he feels like someone kicked him in it hard. Really hard. He looks away returning the pen the lady got him to sign the book. “Excuse me,” he says to her and heads to the restrooms. He feels like he’s going to throw up.     


	8. Who do you think you are, running 'round leaving scars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from Christina Perry's song "Jar of Hearts"

Kayla tries to catch up with the two days she missed out in the school, but it’s Friday and she’s not in the mood to do things. However, it’s not a matter of choice to learn with the next tests coming her way the next week. Kayla feels like midterms are the fucking longest weeks of the year.

She forbids herself to check on the gossip sites, but Ryan keeps sending her links to TMZ and People and other stuff and kids at campus start to look at her with interest. So Kayla supposes the evil plan works. Which is a great thing to know, but it won’t help her learn all the formulas for her nutrition exam. At least it makes her kind of happy.

It doesn’t hit her until she goes grocery shopping on Saturday and when she gets out of the car in front of the shop, there’s a strange looking man making photos of her. Or her car. But her car is not that special that somebody would want to make photos of it.

She spends a lot time in the store thinking it’s all starting to get to her head and the man was probably taking pictures of a usual street in Gainesville…

As Kayla goes through the aisles picking up the food, she imagines what’s left in Ryan’s fridge. Then she goes back and takes all the stuff twice. Ryan is going to be hungry coming home Sunday and when he saw there’s only a couple of eggs and a bunch of milk cartons, he would immediately call Kayla to come up and bring pizza. This way Kayla can save a lot of time on Sunday night that she can dedicate to studying. Formulas. Muscles. Medical laws. Ugh. 

When she stuffs all the bags in the trunk of her cars, she realizes the man’s still there. And when she pulls the car out of the parking lot, he gets in his and follows her down the main road. Kayla glances back in the rearview mirror. She wonders if she’s supposed to be nervous about it. She chooses not to overdo it. But better safe than sorry. She holds a button on the steering wheel until the phone next to her on passenger seat beeps.

“Siri, call Ryan,” she commands.

“Okay,” the artificial voice says and the beeping starts as Kayla turns left. She checks her mirrors. Yep, still behind her. Kayla shakes her head. Ryan picks up.

“Hey, missing me already?” he teases.  

“I think there might be paparazzi following me in a car right now,” Kayla says calmly and turns down the radio.

“Do they look like they want to kill you?”

Kayla snorts a laugh. “How do you recognize they want to kill you?”

“Gosh. Like do they have a machine gun or like grenades?”

She smirks. “No?”

“Then get used to it, babe. That’s like super normal.”

She stops at a stop sign, looks both ways and continues. “But, is it like okay if I lead them to your house?”

Ryan nods and smiles. “I’m sure they know where I live already.” He pauses, saying Kayla’s question in his head once again. “Wait, you going to my house?”

“Yep. Drop you off some food.”

Ryan’s face splits into a wide smile. “You’re like the best. Girlfriend. Ever.”

“Yeah yeah yeah, words and lies,” Kayla mocks him. “The worst thing is that the pap will probably take pictures of me getting all the food into your house and then the whole America is going to think I’m your stupid housewife…”

“Yep, well,” Ryan sighs, “I could get you a big box of candy if to help you get over it.”

“Oh, could you say it again? I would record it and use it against you when you forget,” she laughs and hears Ryan laugh, too. “How’s the meet going?”

“You’re not watching?” Ryan says in mock horror.

“Sorry, darling. School happens.”

“Well, everything’s going according to the plan. Kicking ass left and right.”

Kayla smirks. “Why don’t I believe you?” she teases and turns left in the neighborhood.

“Alright,” Ryan admits laughing. “Maybe I lost one or two races… Let’s call it a standard error.”

Kayla shakes her head, grinning wide. “Oh, poor Ry…” she mocks as she turns into Ryan’s driveway trying not to crash in thuja next to it. “Ryan, you should cut this stupid tree down. It’s getting all over the place. If I scratch my car, it’s on you.”

“Hey don’t hate on that tree! It’s awesome.”

Kayla grunts, pulling the keys out of the ignition. She reaches for the phone and turns the loudspeaker off. “That piece of bush is everything but awesome,” she says getting out of the car and walking around to check the space between the car door and thuja branches. There’s barely a few inches. Kayla frowns at the tree. She walks around the car back and opens the trunk, noticing the paparazzi car stopping a few houses down. Kayla smirks. Yep, the only car parked in the street. Really inconspicuous. She squeezes the phone between her ear and her shoulder and grab some of the bags.

“What’s the point of taking picture of me bringing groceries to your house?” she asks Ryan. “He’ll get my only back anyway…”

“You look good from behind,” Ryan comments and Kayla can almost see the grin on his face. She wants to hit him in the shoulder. “Maybe it’s not a pap. Maybe it’s one of your schoolmates trying to spy on you,” Ryan laughs.

Kayla reaches for the keys in her pocket and finds the one Ryan gave her long time ago for emergency purposes. Food is an emergency. “Ryan, I think the chlorine got to your head,” she giggles. She walks in a heads for the kitchen. As she sets the bags on the kitchen island, she notices there’s the usual dog paws clicking missing. She looks around. “Dude, where’s Carter?” she asks worried. He always comes to greet her.

“Chill,” Ryan says calmly. “I dropped him at Kyle’s. What do you think, that I would leave him five days home alone? He would eat all my food out,” Ryan laughs.

“Well, that wouldn’t be a hard work, since you got here just like a box of cherrios and eggs. He would have to go to hunt for squirrels in the backyard or something to survive.”

“Nah, I don’t think Carter knows how to hunt.”

Kayla chuckles. She takes a breath and looks out of the window. The weird guy still there.

“Hey, Ry. I’m gonna go. You coming back tomorrow?” she checks.

“Yep,” he says. “Late night.”

“All right, call me then.”

“You know I’ll forget,” he laughs. “Love ya, Kay. Later.”

“Yeah, bye…” she smiles and hangs up. She takes a deep breath and walks out of the house to get the rest of her shopping bags.    

 

Ryan puts his phone back into his pocket and joins the conversation Cullen and Ricky are having.

Matt takes a bite of his sandwich and turns to Michael next to him.

“Was it _that_ Kayla?” he asks him in a low voice. Michael shrugs. He tries not to care. He stares hard at his chicken sandwich and chews. But Matt continues. “Dude, I thought it was just another party date…”

Michael remains quiet.

Matt leans closer to him and pokes him with his elbow. “Are they dating? Like for _real_?” He stares at Michael hard and Michael knows this time Matt is not going to take silent for answer. He sighs.

He hates it. He really does. He longs to tell Matt that it’s not real. Tell _everyone_ it’s not real. It would mean that Ryan would have to end this stupid fucking relationship. No more kissing and hugging Kayla. No more Ryan saying ‘babe’ and ‘honey’ to someone else. No more saying ‘love ya, Kay’ – the sentence Ryan never said to him and yet Michael wishes he heard it from him at least once. Ryan would reserve the hugs and kisses for Michael again. Everything would go back to normal. And the awkward war of silence they’re fighting since Miami would end.

But despite all the anger Michael holds in, he doesn’t say it. Sympathy and care forces Michael to just nod.

“Yep. For real,” he mumbles.

He can’t spill it. He can’t destroy it for Ryan.

He pushes off on the chair and gets up. He leaves the rest of the team at the table and walks out of restaurant.

Michael wants to fucking cry just so the world around him would blur and he couldn’t see how fucked up his life is.

He misses Ryan so much he can’t even explain that to himself. He’s never known the meaning of ‘so close, yet so far’. Now he knows from experience. And he would rather not know how that feels at all. Michael hates it.

A tear rolls down his cheek.


	9. I am sorry, alright?

Michael comes back to his room and falls to bed face first. The races were exhausting today, but he can take that. It’s more trying to avoid Ryan that made him tired. And feel like shit. For once he’s glad he was assigned a single room. It feels weird to not have _him_ around, but Michael persuades himself that it’s only for the best. Being with Ryan right now would most likely kill him. It’s enough he gets to see him walk around in speedo all day. Michael sighs and bites the pillow.

It’s late, he’s got the first heat of the tomorrow morning session and he should just stand up, get changed and go to sleep. However, Michael doesn’t feel like he can move a limb. With every minute he lies on the bed, his body feels more tired and the pain starts to really kick in. Maybe he pushed himself too far today, he thinks. He gathers all the energy to move his head and lay his cheek on the cold pillow so he can breathe better. He closes his eyes and focuses on keeping his mind blank. He drifts to sleep slowly.

There’s a knock on the door and Michael blinks sleepily. He groans and rolls to his side. He decides he won’t get the door. There’s a minute of silence before somebody’s knocking again. Michael puts his pillow to his ear and ignores that. This time, there’s no knocking, There’s a straight forward ear-wracking banging on his door. Michael groans and makes himself get up. On his way to the door, he prepares a really good annoyed speech in which he decides to tell the intruder he’s not welcomed here in a not very polite way. He opens the door angrily and that second he wishes he wouldn’t do that at all.

“I thought you were dead,” Ryan says upset, but with concern.

“I’m not. You can go away now,” Michael says and closes the door. He doesn’t want to deal with this. It’s annoying and seeing Ryan just kind of hurts. But Ryan places his hand on the door and pushes it back open a bit.

“Dude, just let me in.”

“No. I’m tired.” And he doesn’t want to talk to him.

“Mike,” Ryan frowns at him and pushes at the door more. “You fucking pushed me against the wall. You owe me this.” Michael’s grip on the door loosens.

“I’m tired,” Michael repeats helplessly, but Ryan just shakes his head and slips past him in the room.

“Yeah, I’m tired too. Of you acting all stupid,” he says and storms in the bedroom leaving Michael taken aback by the door. He sits on the bed cross legged. Michael gulps and follows him slowly. He leans against the door frame. He doesn’t know what to do with himself. He suddenly feels guilty as never. And he doesn’t know what to do to make it better. It’s not like he didn’t apologize to Ryan like hundred times and didn’t say he didn’t mean to. Cause he really didn’t mean to hurt him. He was just… But also it’s not like Ryan really accepted any of the apologies.

Ryan looks him straight in the eye. “So will you tell me what it is?”

“Can we just… not?” Michael tries. He feels like he wants to runs away. He’s not ready for this conversation.

“No,” Ryan says strictly. “Just fucking tell me what up, dude,” Ryan grits out. “You didn’t hit me without purpose.”

Michael tosses his hands. “I already told you I’m sorry!” he groans.

Ryan stands up and Michael can feel the tension between them double. He steps back involuntarily.

“I don’t fucking care if you’re sorry, I wanna know _why_ you did that,” Ryan spits out angrily and takes a few steps toward. Michael suddenly feels so tiny, so breakable. Now more than ever he realizes how muscular Ryan’s arms are and how easily he could mess up his face within a blink of an eye. Michael gulps.

“Dude, I already told you.” He tries to sound confident, but it gets really hard with Ryan a feet away frowning at you. “I told you, then you got mad and since then we don’t talk to each other.”

Ryan’s face softens as he’s surprised. “I thought _you_ don’t talk to _me_.”

Michael snorts a laugh. “Yo, why wouldn’t _I_ talk to _you_?” He pauses and takes another step back to regain his space. He feels more comfortable being out of Ryan’s reaching distance now. “I hit you, you get mad, I say I’m sorry and then you come back saying it’s okay. If… like if it’s okay. Then we’re cool. That’s how it works.”

Ryan blinks at him surprised, all the anger disappearing from his face. “Then why aren’t we talking?”

“ _Because you didn’t say it’s okay!_ ” Michael tries really hard not to yell. He’s just desperate. “I did my part, it was your step to take.”

“Dude…” Ryan exhales and steps towards Michael reaching a hand for him. Out of reflex, Michael shrinks back thinking Ryan will hit him, but Ryan just places his hand on his shoulder and strokes gently. “It’s okay.” He frowns, thinking. “I guess I should have said it… that it’s fine,” he steps closer and wraps Michael in a hug. “We’re cool.”          

Michael’s not sure what to do. He’s confused. One moment Ryan’s all angry and in war, the second after he has his arms around him, making small circles with his palm on Michael’s back. Michael wonders if it’s not some kind of trick. Like if Ryan won’t start yelling at him again. But nothing happens. Ryan just lays his head on Michael’s shoulder and presses closer to him. And Michael just gives in. He wraps his arms around Ryan’s shoulders and puts his face into his hair. He takes a deep breath inhaling the familiar smell. The one he’s missed so much over the past few days.

“I’m sorry, Doggy,” Michael mumbles.

“Yeah. I know…” Ryan closes his eyes. “It’s all fucked up situation.”

“Let’s just not talk about it for a while.” Michael doesn’t want to think about it. Not now. Not tomorrow. Not ever. 


	10. It's like I checked into rehab, cause you're my disease

Kayla is reading through her textbook over again when it pops out in her head out of nothing. _Mountain Dew._ She forgot to buy Ryan Mountain Dew yesterday! How could she forget? She remembers walking through the drink aisle at least twice.

She reaches for the car keys on the table and heads out. She takes it as a welcomed distraction.

Kayla parks the car in front of Ryan house checking the rearview mirror. Nobody’s following her today. Maybe paparazzi have a free day on Sunday. Or they got better at hiding. She smirks.

Kayla puts the heavy package on the kitchen counter and sighs. She rips the plastic foil with her fingers and puts few of the bottles in the fridge to cool. There is stomping behind her and she turns startled. There’s a little boy, curls falling to his eyes, looking at her terrified. They stare at each other before the toddler turns around and runs away.

“Mommy!” he whines and there’s a bit of panic in his voice. Kayla isn’t able to move. There’s a weird mix of surprise and worry going through her head.

She hears steps coming to the kitchen again. A woman enters carefully with the boy in her arms. She looks worried and careful. She can’t hide the surprise when she sees Kayla.

“I- Well- Hello,” Kayla mutters.

“What are you doing here?” the woman asks suspicious.

“I’m… I’m Kayla,” she says and waves awkwardly. She tries not to look like she’s done something wrong. Because… Well, because Kayla doesn’t think she’s done something wrong. In fact, what are _they_ doing at Ryan’s house?

The woman frowns at her anyway, the boy eyeing her with concern, head laid on his mom’s shoulder.

“I’m friend of Ryan,” she explains to break the silence. “I didn’t come to steal anything. I came to drop some food for him,” she points to the Mountain Dew bottles.

“You bought Ryan food?”

“Uhm, yeah. Kinda.” Kayla looks away because now that it’s said out loud, it’s just weird, right? But that’s just the way they roll for months. He’s going to pay it off to her in some way.

“Oh,” the woman says and seems to think about it. Kayla feels like the awkward silence is easting her alive. The woman looks at her again, her face softening a little. Like Kayla maybe earned her trust. “Kayla you said?”

Kayla nods.

The woman steps toward her and stretches her hand. “I’m Kristin, Ryan’s sister.” And that’s when it lights up to Kayla.

She smiles. “Oh, nice to meet you,” she shakes her hand. “Ryan talks about you a lot,” he says warmly. “That must be Zaydin, right?” he points to the boy, who hides his face in his mom’s shoulder.

“Yep,” Kristin says. “And I assume you’re the ‘I’m going clubbing with Kayla’ and ‘I’m eating pizza and watching movies tonight with Kayla’ Kayla, aren’t you?” Kristen laughs.

Kayla nods with a grin. “Yeah, that must be me. And if it’s not, I want to know what other Kayla Ryan spends time with.”

“So you’re stocking up his fridge?” Kristin says and sits Zaydin on the kitchen island.

Kayla nods. “It was all empty. He would come back from the meet and whine about it until I ordered pizza or something. So this is like the better way for me,” Kayla smirks before stopping and looking at Kristin quizzically. Maybe it isn’t a good idea to tell this to Ryan’s sister, she thinks to herself. However, instead of scolding Kristin laughs.

“Yeah, same old Ryan. He like to believe he’s super independent when he always needs someone to take care of him,” she snorts a laugh and points behind her shoulder. “I came to do the laundry. So team work.”

Kayla grins. “But wait,” she stops. “I thought Ryan said you live like in… Daytona Beach. You came to Gainesville just to do his laundry?”

“No!” Kristin bursts out laughing. “I mean I love him, but just not _that_ much to drive for two hours to watch his shirts.” She pauses. “Me and my mom came to visit for a few days,” she explains.

“Oh,” Kayla says. Because what else is she supposed to say. Ryan didn’t mention it. He probably forgot. And it’s not like he _has_ to tell her anyway.

“So, you’re spending a lot of time together?” Kristin tries to sound casual, but Kayla can sense the change in the mood.

“Yeah, I guess,” she says suddenly aware.

“Friends?”

Kayla’s not sure what to say. “Good friends,” she mumbles hoping the answer will get lost in the air.

“Cool,” she says with a smile and looks like if she’s thinking whether or not to ask further.

“I should get going,” Kayla says before Kristin can say another word.

“Okay,” Kristin smiles. “I’ll see you around.”

“Hopefully. Nice meeting you.”

“You too. Zay, say goodbye to Kayla,” Kristin encourages her son. He turns around on the island and  waives his little hand.

“Bye, Kayla,” he sing-songs.

Kayla can’t help but smile.

“Bye, Zaydin.”

Kayla is turning on Siri even before she pulls out of Ryan’s driveway.

“Siri, I want you to text Ryan.”

“Alright. What should the text say?”

“Dude, I just met your sister at your house. I think she’s up on us. You should tell her we’re dating.”

 

Technically, Ryan’s supposed to be having his nap before the last evening session right now and he should be mad that a text woke him up. But he’s not. Because it didn’t wake him up. Because he’s not sleeping. It’s not like he’s not tired. He’s fucking exhausted. He’s exhausted from focusing on _not_ thinking about Michael. Not thinking about how good it feels to have him around. Not thinking about how frustrated he felt during the days they didn’t talk to each other. Not thinking about how much he just wants to be curled up to him naked… Oh, there it goes again!

So basically, considering the situation, Ryan’s glad he’s got a text to distract himself with for a moment.

 

_**Kayla (2:45PM)** _

_Dude, I just met your sister at your house. I think she’s up on us. You should tell her we’re dating._

 

Ryan smirks. So it means his mom and Kristin arrived early. Again. He’s far from mad, he hasn’t seen them in eternity. But he's kind of jealous Kayla's got to meet them already, even though she doesn't seem to be particularly thrilled about it. He would be.

 

_**Ryan (2:46PM)** _

_Sry, did she put you through cross examination?_

_**Kayla (2:48PM)** _

_Not really. I think she was going to, though… She was asking questions. Like if we’re spending lots of time together and stuff._

_**Ryan (2:49PM)** _

_U should just tell her. I’m sure she already knows anwy, she just wanted that confirmed_

_**Kayla (2:49PM)** _

_It felt weird to say ‘Hey, I’m Kayla. I’m dating your brother’… Dude, you need to tell her. And your mom, too. I don’t want to get through this again. Awkward._

_**Kayla (2:50PM)** _

_And btw you have the cutest nephew EVER!_

_**Ryan (2:50PM)** _

_I know, right? Hes AWESOME! Wait until you get 2 know him better. Aunt Kayla :P_

_**Kayla (2:52PM)** _

_Fuck you…_

_**Kayla (2:52PM)** _

_I meant fuck you, HONEY…_

_**Ryan (2:53PM)** _

_I’m coming home tonight, light the candles, sweetheart. Miss U_

_**Kayla (2:53PM)** _

_Sorry, school. Maybe other time :P You have some family talk to do anyway. I’m not stepping in the house until you tell them who’s your girlfriend!_

 

Ryan laughs and puts the phone back under his pillow. He can’t help but wonder why with Kayla everything’s just so easy. While with Michael… It’s just not. But again, with Michael it’s different. It’s _better_. And it’s also weird… Ryan can’t quite understand it. So he just gives up and lets the exhaustion take over.

Ryan buries his face in the pillow and drifts to sleep counting the strokes he has to make during his evening finals to swim it home. Two races and he’s out.

Damn, he needs a break, it’s the last thought that runs through his head before he falls asleep.

 

 Ryan enters the locker room after his final race and maybe… just maybe he’s kind of glad he ended up fourth. He really wouldn’t want to go out again to pick up his medal. He’s just longing to be in his own bed right now, with Carter licking his ear and maybe someone beside him… And he misses his mom and sister so bad. He misses the feeling of having a full house.

“Hey Mike,” he starts when they meet in the hotel hall where they’re gathering their stuff before leaving. “You heading up home?”

Michael looks at him confused. “Yeah.” He pauses, looking at Ryan quizzically. “Why?”

“Nothing,” Ryan waives it off with a fake smile and sets off. He stops after the first step and turns back. “Actually, I was thinking if you want to come around to G-spot and stay a few days,” he offers. “We have a pool there too. We can like… train together if you want. Or something,” he adds and supports it with a smile. Like Michael really need some kind of persuading. “My mom’s there though up to Tuesday, but then it’s just us.”

“Fine,” he nods with a grin and tries not to look over-excited. “I think I could do that.”

Ryan smiles relieved. “Cool.”

“I’m doing this just because I want to see you mom. Just so you know,” Michael calls after him laughing.

“That’s what I thought. My mom loves you and you know that. Maybe we should like… adopt you,” Ryan laughs back.

Michael crinkles his nose. “Rather not. _My_ mom wouldn’t be up to that. Let’s just stick to the visits.”

Ryan smiles. “Alright, bro.”

Just the idea of having Michael around for a few days makes him relax. Ryan doesn’t know why. And he refuses to analyze it. Cause’s it’s fucking hard and complicated.


	11. I don't think we can do this now...

Seriously, Ryan just _loves_ his mom, sister and Zaydin being around. And he really enjoys Michael being around. But what he hates more than anything is his family and Michael being around _at the same time_. He realizes that within the first hour they are back at his house in Gainesville.

Ryan and Michael land in Gainesville late at night. They are both exhausted. Ryan has to fight himself to keep his eyes open and paying attention to the road. They make a quick stop to pick up Carter from Kyle and head home quickly. Just the idea of his mom’s hug and his precious comfy bed makes Ryan see stars of joy. He probably breaks a few speed limits on his way to get to that. Not that Michael dozing next to him, leaned against the car window cares much.

Ryan sees the turned on lights in his living room the moment he turns to his street. His heart suddenly starts racing and he feels wide awake. He pats Michael on his thigh.

“Mike, wake up, we’re home,” he says while pulling into the driveway. Michael hums and stirs, but his eyes remain closed. Ryan shoots him a quick look, trying to not scratch his car with the branches of the tuya next to the driveway.

“Mike,” Ryan squeezes at his thigh harder and shakes him a little. “Mike, wake up, dude. Home. Bed. Sleep. Move,” he insists. Michael opens his eyes drawing a sharp breath in. He rubs his eyes looking around a bit disoriented. Ryan puts the car on park, pulls the keys out in hurry and the moment later he’s out jogging to the door, leaving Michael behind.

Michael tries to identify the place and the outlines come out slowly in the dark, but he manages to remember why he’s in Ryan car. Suddenly without Ryan who squeezed at his thigh too high to let his body _not_ respond to it. His jeans are getting tight and uncomfortable very quickly. Michael looks up and through the window he sees Ike hugging her son and pinching him in the face. He looks down at his crotch then back up at the Lochte family reunion picture in front of him. This is so wrong, Michael thinks. And it’s totally Ryan’s fault. Shouldn’t have touched him like that.

Michael takes a deep breath and rubs at his face before getting out of the car. Carter jumps out behind him.

“It’s late. You didn’t have to stay up,” Ryan says and kisses his mom on her cheek, then pulls his sister in a tight hug.

“No way, honey. I wouldn’t bear another minute without seeing you,” Ike says and there’s actually a small tear in her eye. Ryan smiles and pulls her into a group hug, squeezing his eyes and enjoying the moment.   

“I missed you,” he says.

“We missed you too, honey.”

The door open and there’s a paw clicking on the floor as Carter makes his way to them, wiggling his little tail and nudging his head into Kristin’s leg. Michael enters behind him.

“Oh, hey Michael,” Ike calls out happily and wraps him in a hug, making Ryan a little bit jealous. Michael bends down a bit and wraps his long arms around Ike. He gives Ryan an apologizing look. “Good to see you, too! That’s a nice surprise. I didn’t know you’d be here too,” Ike says pulling away and she doesn’t even try to cover the joy of both of them coming around.

Michael smiles. “It was a last minute decision,” he says and glances at Ryan. “I’m really happy to be here.”

 

There’s more greeting and hugging and making the others know how much you missed them, before the adrenaline in Ryan’s veins starts to fade away and the exhaustion starts to roll over again.

“But since me and Kristin occupy the guest room, where’s Michael going to sleep?” Ike turns to Ryan with concern.

Ryan looks at her truly confused. “I- I guess I didn’t think about that,” he says honestly. Because he really didn’t. The house’s big, it’s got two bathrooms and an awesome walk in closet Ryan’s really proud of. But there’s only one guest room.

“I can crash here, don’t sweat it,” Michael offers.

“Oh no, that wouldn’t be fair, honey,” Ike scowls at the idea. “That couch is mess for your back. I told Ryan that leather won’t do in here.”

“Oh, come on, mom! You love this couch.”

“Yeah, it’s nice and stuff, but it’s not designed for sleepovers.”

Ryan gives her a look. “Mom. I’m 25. I don’t do sleepovers on couch that much often…”  

Ike shrugs her shoulders. “Alright, Ry,” she stands up. “As you think. But if I find out tomorrow that Michael slept on that couch, there will be consequences,” she says seriously. Ryan nods.

“Don’t worry mom, I’ll take care of it,” Ryan says.

“Good night, boys!” Ike calls out. "Love ya!" And then she’s out, leaving them alone.

Ryan waits a minute before standing up himself. He’s tired. Dead tired. Only the simple act of standing up feels like too much. He yawns.

He looks at the door to the guest room once more, checking for any sort of sign his mom or sister is going to walk out, then he turns back to Michael.

“Want to crash in my bed with me?” he asks, breaking the silence. He could just offer that much earlier, but asking this question in front of his mom just doesn’t feel right.

Michael smirks and nods.

“Sure,” he says and follows Ryan down the hall.

They enter Ryan’s room and Michael closes the door behind him quietly. Ryan is too tired to even turn on the lights, which actually doesn’t matter. They both know the room very well so they don’t crash into things. Michael more hears then sees Ryan taking his shirt off. He gulps, fully aware of the feeling that hasn’t gone away since Ryan left him in the car.

“Your mom was right,” Michael whispers into the dark.

“About what?”        

“It wouldn’t be fair to make me sleep on the couch.”

Ryan looks confused in the direction in which he assumes Michael is standing. Then he feels Michael’s hands slips round his waist, fingers brushing at the skin slightly.

“Dude,” Michael breathes out. “You left me in the car with a hard-on.” He pulls Ryan closer, pressing their bodies together. “You need to change your waking manners. Squeezing thighs is not a neutral way to wake uo someone.”

Ryan smirks realizing what Michael is talking about.

“I don’t know if I’m sorry about that or not,” he giggles.

“You don’t have to be sorry,” Michael whispers. “It’ll be enough if you do something about it,” he says and bites at Ryan’s jaw. Ryan gulps and closes his eyes. The hot breath on his neck is making him feel dizzy and just all kind of awesome, but…

“Dude, there’s like... My mom's down the hall. We can’t.”

“We can be quick. She won’t find out,” Michael says trailing the kisses down Ryan’s neck.

Ryan throws his head back trying hard to keep his mind together. “This is so _wrong_.”

“Leaving me with a hard-on you caused, _that_ is wrong. It’s definitely not fair.” He bites at Ryan’s collarbone and Ryan is almost sure his brain shuts out for a second. It’s hard to tell when there’s dark all around anyway. His hands slip in Michael shirt and run up his sides, trailing the perfectly toned muscles. Ryan whimpers.

“Dude, stop,” his brain makes a weak last try. “Stop it…”

“Alright. Then stop being so fucking hot…”

And that’s it. Ryan’s brain is out and exhausted. “Fine, enough with the compliments,” he says pushing Michael down on the bed. “Let’s get down the business.”

Michael smirks.

 

There’s something special about not seeing each other in the darkness. With one sense shut, the others just blow up. Michael notices every flex of Ryan muscles under him, he notices every slight breath and everything feels just… _just more_. He grinds their hips together and kisses the crook of Ryan neck licking at the spot. He tastes chlorine and sun. He tastes Floridian sun, he tastes Ryan. Michael sucks at the skin more just to enjoy it and remember it forever.

Ryan moans loudly under him. Too loudly, even.

“Dude!” Michael hisses and his hand shoots up to cover Ryan mouth. “Your mom’s down the hall. Shut up.”

Ryan nods under his hand and Michael takes it as a sign of agreement. He places his hand back on the bed next to Ryan’s head to support his weight. But when he moves his hips, there’s another moan from Ryan, louder than before. Michael leans down and seals his lips with his, muffling the noise a bit. “Unbelievable,” he whispers pulling away a bit. “Now your mom totally heard it.”

Michael can feel Ryan’s smile against his lips.

“Your fault,” Ryan says breathlessly and moans when Michael moves again.

Michael leans down for another kiss, shaking his head and smiling.


	12. If only she knew...

It doesn’t happen to Michael quite often. He wakes up in the middle of the night feeling hungry. Actually, he’s not just hungry, he’s _starving_.

He looks down. Ryan is lying next to him, his legs tangled in Michael’s and an arm thrown lazily around his waist. It feels good and safe and Michael thinks for a moment that he would just stay like that forever. But then his stomach growls in disagreement. Michael sighs. He wiggles out of Ryan grip careful not to wake him. Michael goes still as Ryan stirs, mumbles something and turns on his side. His breathing gets quite again and Michael breathes out in relief. He walks out of the room quietly.

Michael doesn’t turn the lights on, he knows the house by heart by now. And the street lights offer enough lightning to not trip over Carter guarding the entrance to the living room. The dog looks up to him lazily and Michael swears he throws him and accusing look after. However, it’s not Michael’s fault that Ryan shooed him out of his bedroom, where he usually sleeps. Well, it kind of is, since Michael took Carter’s spot in the bed… Michael can’t bring himself to feel sorry for that.

He heads for the kitchen, opening the fridge. He expects the bright light to hurt his eyes so he squirms, but the light isn’t that bright. Actually it’s almost not shining at all, because it’s covered by the huge amount of food in Ryan’s fridge. Despite that, the paper sign on the middle shelf hits Michael more than the light.

 _Stocked your house to the top so you don’t get hungry soon and call me. Welcome home. Kayla_ ♥

Michael frowns at the note, the emotions turning in him. Why did she write that? Why would she stock Ryan’s fridge? Why would Ryan call her if he got hungry? Why does she write this girlfriend-y note in his _fridge_ where the public, which they supposedly fake it all for, can’t see?! Why is there that heart? Why…? There’s doubt climbing up Michael’s mind. Suddenly he’s angry. He grabs the note and scrunches it purposefully. He throws it out and grabs one of sandwiches from the fridge. He bites at it and hopes Kayla didn’t make them. Cause that would suck. Like really suck. He heads back for the bedroom.

Michael doesn’t turn on his ninja mode when getting to the bed. Maybe this time he wants to wake Ryan up. He stomps in. The mattress dips under him heavily and he tugs at the blanket Ryan stole him in the meanwhile. Ryan stirs and crawls up closer to Michael in his sleep. He throws his arm back over his waist. But this time it doesn’t feel safe. It feels like betrayal. Michael grabs his arm and puts it off. He turns on his side facing away from Ryan. It seems Ryan doesn’t even notice. He’s back in his sleep deep.

Michael frowns at the wall.

He can’t manage to fall asleep for a while. 

 

A thin body slides on the chair next to Kayla at lunch. She smiles.

“Hey, Beth, how you doing?”

“Great,” she smiles back and drops her bag on the floor. “You?”

“As usual,” Kayla answers and takes a sip of her juice.

Beth is Kayla’s old time friend. They’ve known each other since high school, actually, and now they go to the same university. They don’t have the same major, though, but they agreed to rooming at the campus. Well, rooming… Since Beth’s joined a rock band two months ago and therefore spends every free minute playing, rehearsing or travelling to play somewhere, Kayla isn’t sure it’s called rooming anymore. In fact, it’s just more of her living alone and Beth sleeping over. But Kayla doesn’t mind. Beth’s always been easy-going nice person to her. Always until now, when she is eyeing Kayla suspiciously.

“What?” Kayla asks nervously.

Beth rests her forearms on the table and leans forward to her. “So…”

Kayla looks up to her. “So?”

“How was your weekend?”

Kayla blinks taken aback. “Good, I guess? I mean, full of learning and stuff.”

“You haven’t been at school since Tuesday.”

“Oh…” Kayla says, the point Beth is trying to make becoming clearer to her.

“Is there something you want to tell me about?” Beth pushes.

Kayla sweeps cookie crumbs of the table. “Well…” she says nervously, suddenly not knowing exactly what to say. “Not exactly.”

Beth stares at her hard for a second before throwing her hands in the air. She frowns at Kayla. “Come on, Kay, I know how to use the internet!” Kayla’s eyes are glued to the table so Beth continues. “I’ve seen gazzilion pictures and read a shit-load of articles over the weekend.” Kayla risks a glance at Beth and she sees a wide grin on her face. “You lucky bastard! Snatching _Lochte_ …” she shakes her head and punches Kayla’s arm playfully. “Why didn’t you say a word?”

Kayla clears her throat, trying to turn on her girlfriend mode. “Well it’s kind of a hot news.”

Beth sits closer and nods her head enthusiastically. “How long?”

Kayla tries to think if she and Ryan have settled on the start of their “relationship”.

“Well, I don’t know, like… two weeks, maybe?” She pauses. “We don’t count it. It’s hard to point out the start, actually. The friendship just… developed in time, I don’t know,” Kayla shrugs with a smile, suddenly very proud of herself for wriggling out of the situation.  

Beth smiles dreamily. “Oh, lucky you… He’s awesome.”

“He is.”

“I mean, it’s _Lochte_ , right?”

“I know,” Kayla grins. Yeah, and Lochte equals fun, Kayla reminds herself, so _this_ conversation is supposed to be fun, too. She focuses on living up to that, realizing that it’s kind of easy, actually.

“Have you, like, seen that body?”

Kayla gives her the look and Beth bursts out laughing. “Yeah, alright, you’re dating, stupid question.” Beth admits and sighs. “It’s just all those _muscles_ and those _shoulders_ and the _smile_ , geez!”

Kayla covers her mouth with a hand. “Come on, Beth, stop. I know it’s all true, but as his girlfriend I find this talking inappropriate and disturbing and I want you to not ever think about touching him,” she jokes.

Beth pulls Kayla’s hand away and gives her a sad look. “So no sharing?”

“No, definitely not sharing him! Ever!” Kayla laughs. If only she knew… 


End file.
